Frank was a marketing representative with Shell Oil Company while his entrepreneur
spirit kicked in. In 1973 Frank and Delores took the risk and embarked on a new, exciting
venture and opened Wilton Shell Service - a two-bay “Gas Station.”
With the help of Frank’s father, Jim Sr., Wilton Travel Plaza – Scotty’s Restaurant opened
in 1977 with twenty employees.
In 1980 Frank’s brother Jim, Jr. joined the family business and Frank’s son Scott came
onboard in 1995. Frank, Jim and Scott can be found at Wilton Travel Plaza – Scotty’s
Restaurant making daily improvements and contributions to this day.

Forty years and three building expansions later Wilton Travel Plaza – Scotty’s Restaurant
is still going strong with eighty employees (partners) as a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-aweek operation, enjoying the hard earned “We Never Close” reputation.

The Parillo family is proud of Wilton Travel Plaza – Scotty’s Restaurant and honored to be
part of the Town of Wilton. We sincerely thank all our loyal customers and partners who
have contributed to our 40 years of being part of the Wilton Community.

Believe it or not, this barren farmland was Wilton in
1960. We hope you enjoy this look back on our rich
history and join us as we look ahead to a bright future!

tonè
il
W
d
l
ie
f
n
e
e
r
çG
s
Sar atoga Spring
ê

This 1960 USDA aerial photo depicts
the vacant lands of Wilton east of
Loughberry Lake, before the Northway
was opened in 1963.

Dear Town of Wilton Residents and Friends,

The year 2018 will be a year of remembrance and celebration as the town of
Wilton takes pride in its Bicentennial. In commemoration, the Wilton Bicentennial
Committee has planned a series of special events designed to encourage the
citizens of this township to pause, reflect and remember our history.
We invite you to join us in review of 200 years in the making. Plan to come and
enjoy the events and activities with your families, friends and neighbors.
For complete up-to-date information on our schedule of events throughout
the year, I invite you to visit www.wiltonbicentennial.com. Wilton has a rich
history to celebrate and reflect upon with pride.
As a community, we've witnessed tremendous growth which has created the
quality of life we enjoy today. A bright future lies ahead for our children and
grandchildren because of the forethought and hard work of many.

ur future is the people and we have a very bright future!
We have a wonderful community and we live in the #1
County in the state. It’s up to the next generation to take it
from here. -Roy McDonald

O

Sq Feet: 22,300
Apartments: 114
Open Date:
10/01/15

would like to see Wilton keep its quiet and charming
atmosphere without too much growth in the hamlets.

Target
Distribution

Employees: 650
Sq Feet: 1,506,834
Open Date:
07/05/00

I-Susan Gavin Lant

ilton continues to be a very vibrant community as it has
been for the past 200 years. The Wilton Community
is a strong, dynamic community that fully embraces
opportunities for growth, while preserving its historic legacy,
we are very proud to be part of the Wilton community.

W

-Charles V. Wait, Chairman of Adirondack Trust Company
ilton is very proud of its past. I see the future even
brighter. I see Wilton continuing to follow the same
successful path with a clear vision of the community’s
future needs fueled by the hard work of many dedicated
individuals. -Art Johnson

W
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TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 13

Happy Birthday
Town of Wilton
WRITTEN & PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOHN R. GREENWOOD

T

he origin of this story began one Saturday back in the
summer of 1970 when my father Ralph and I were
rabbit hunting west of the city along the Petrified Sea
Garden Road. I was fifteen and my father was trying
his best to pass down his love for hunting to me. I was
much happier and more proficient at shooting a basketball
than I was a shotgun, so I can assure you no rabbits were
harmed then, or since, by this author. What my father
and I did bag that morning was an old bottle dump. We
spent the next several weekends excavating and removing
bushel baskets full of antique bottles from the woods. We

were now both hooked and a new father-son pastime was
born. Unfortunately, by the end of the following summer I
discovered girls were more exciting, and while my father
continued chasing old bottles, I began dating. Forty-seven
years later I still have the girl, and the baskets filled with
old bottles. My father remained hooked on the sport and
was always searching for old abandoned farm dumps. You
can imagine his excitement when in 1971 he acquired an
original 1856 Geil Map of Saratoga County from an estate
sale. The poster-size map was marked with small black
squares. Each square denoted a dwelling; be it a home,
church, or business. In 1971 not only were many of the
buildings on the map now gone, some of old country roads
had been abandoned and no longer existed. This was a
virtual treasure map for a bottle-dump sleuth.

For years the map with the golden patina remained rolled
up and leaning in the corner of my parents’ closet. Rarely
did it see the light of day. After the passing of my parents,
I became the keeper of the map. Although it held historic
value, it was the memory of those Saturday mornings bottle
digging with my father that made it priceless to me. My
love for learning and writing about local history revived
my interest in the map in the last few years. Last year, not
knowing what to do with it or how to preserve it I assembled
a large PVC container to help protect it. The map again
remained silent and leaning in a corner in my home—
that was until I read an article about the Town of Wilton
celebrating its 200th year birthday in 2018. I had done some
minor research on the map and had found that the Town of
Greenfield and Saratoga County each had an identical map
in their possession. Since I spent the first third of my life as
youth growing up in the Town of Greenfield and the second
two-thirds as an adult raising a family in the Town of Wilton,
my wife and I thought the map might make a nice birthday
gift for the latter. Because it had been rolled up for close
to fifty years the map was becoming frail and in desperate
need of attention. My hope was the town might have the

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contacts and resources to help, either stabilize, or restore
it. If so, I would relinquish ownership of the map back to
the people of the town that happened to be located right
smack dab in the middle of it.
I started by writing a letter to Art Johnson, the Wilton Town
Supervisor. I briefly described the map and explained my
idea of gifting it to the town for its bicentennial celebration.
He promptly responded, and the wheels were set in
motion. Art was excited about the idea and we began
setting up a time for me to bring it to the town offices for a
closer look. Art mentioned that Tim Welch was producing a
video documenting the bicentennial and he’d like to invite
him and Saratoga County Historian Lauren Roberts to join
us. So, on January 18, 2018, at the Wilton Town Complex,
the four of us rolled out the map to try and decide what
the next course of action should be. Lauren’s expertise
was apparent, and she quickly listed various options, all
of which carried a different level of monetary investment.
She then suggested we contact Donia Conn, a Preservation
Consultant for Cultural Heritage Collections. That turned
out to be the 911 call that
saved the map’s life. Two weeks
later Art, Lauren, and I met at
the Wilton Town Offices with
Donia to discuss our options.
Donia’s experience and love
of preserving history was clear
and evident. After studying the
map carefully, she suggested
stabilizing it with some careful
restoration and a quality
backing. A finely detailed,
museum quality restoration
would cost thousands of
Donia Conn
dollars and could take years
to complete. She explained
that with the material and
process she used, we could
always go the more expensive and timely route at a later
date. With that knowledge it was unanimous. The map was
placed back in its tube and headed off with its newest map
keeper. I was smiling a county-wide smile.
At the time of this article my birthday present to Wilton is in
the middle of its rebirth. It is being lovingly restored by the
capable hands of Donia Conn. She has assured us it will be
ready for this summer’s Bicentennial Celebration and the
activities associated with it. In addition to the restoration we
also agreed to have a display case with a detachable front
made for the map. This will make it more accessible should
future restoration or scanning be necessary.
As life-long Saratoga County residents, both my wife
Patricia and I are extremely grateful for the help of Wilton
Town Supervisor Art Johnson, Saratoga County Historian
Lauren Roberts, and especially Preservation Consultant and
Conservator Donia Conn for their help in preserving this
precious and historical 1856 Geil Map of Saratoga County.

Happy Birthday Town of Wilton!

•

TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 15

16 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

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Aerial view of Exit 15 showing Pyramid Mall • 1970

Exit 15 Then & Now
Prehistoric Glacial Lake Albany once covered the area that is
now Wilton. When it drained approximately 10,500 years ago
through the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers, it created a natural
intersection in the region and left behind sandy deposits that
grew great expanses of pine barrens and bluestem grass.

" Mother Nature,

with the glaciers, had an amazing
affect geologically with how people inhabit the land and creating
what land was good, for what purpose,” said Larry Gordon.

When the nation’s first people traversed the countryside,
they settled in the places that were the most easily
accessible. Following these routes, a rural farming
community sprouted up in Wilton, that even in 1950,
still only had a population of less than 1,500 people.
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In 1955, sections of the railroad that stretched through the
center of the city of Saratoga Springs and into Wilton were
moved. Saratoga Springs’ passenger station was moved
from Railroad Place to West Avenue in 1958. Gordon worked
as a surveyor on what would, by 1967, be an uninterrupted
interstate highway connecting New York City to Canada.
Known as the “Adirondack Northway,” or simply, the
“Northway,” the stretch that runs through Saratoga County has
two exits within the town of Wilton (Exits 15 and 16).
TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 17

Aerial view of Exit 15 showing Pyramid Mall completed • 1972

“The Wilton exits were a big
interchange in the middle of nothing,”
recalls Gordon.
He remembers there being a cluster of three cottages on
old Route 50, which was then just a two-lane road along its
length. A tremendous county sewer system project in 1969,
costing $142 million in just the first phase was executed, and
water lines were put in where the dirt was easiest to dig.

It was the largest of the expanding shopping opportunities
concentrated in this two-mile radius that also included fast
food restaurants and car dealerships, at the time. From
1970 to 1980, Wilton’s population surged 142 percent,
from just under 3,000 people to more than 7,000. Town
and County Supervisor Roy McDonald held monthly office
hours in the mall to engage residents in the growth of the
burgeoning town.

“Growth takes a natural flow,” said Gordon.

A Beacon of Hope

By 1972, the biggest news in retail up until that point came
with the opening of the Pyramid Mall at Exit 15. Developed
by the Pyramid Management Group based out of Syracuse,
it was eventually anchored by large department stores such
as Montgomery Ward and Jamesway, a Stewart’s Shop
even occupied a space within the new commercial center.
To capitalize on its proximity to its well-known neighbor,
the city of Saratoga Springs, it was renamed Pyramid Mall
Saratoga and then called simply, the Saratoga Mall.

18 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

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TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 19

Aerial view of Pyramid Mall with Standard Furniture Building to left • 1976

Others integral in the formation
of the development of Exit 15
included former long-time
Saratoga National Bank and Trust Co.
CEO Raymond O’Conor.
Serving a total of sixteen years on the Wilton Town Board,
on the Saratoga County Planning Board from 1987 to 1994,
on the Wilton Global Job Development Corp. for six years,
and on other representational boards, he was also named
Wilton’s Recycling Coordinator. The first town-wide Recycling
Day was held November 11, 1989 at the Saratoga Mall.
Next to the Saratoga Mall, developer Wilmorite built the
Wilton Mall, which opened in 1990 with anchor department
stores Addis & Dey, Sears, Roebuck and Co., and Steinbach.
Concerns that the town couldn’t support two malls were
overwhelmed with appreciation for the fact that the
additional sales tax revenue would continue to replace the
residents’ need to pay any town taxes.

20 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

Two Decades of Development

Chairman of the seven-member Wilton master plan committee,
O’Conor was appointed by McDonald to gather residential
input and develop the plan that was eventually adopted in
1990, laying out a lot of what Wilton looks like today.
Consistently among the fastest growing communities in
Saratoga County, Wilton’s population grew to include
another 2,000 people according to state census records, by
the end of a decade that saw massive job growth, as well.
Zones for retail around Exit 15 were paired with commercial
and light industrial plots at Exit 16. Additional swaths of
residential and open space for active and passive recreation
were factored into the plan by 1993.
By the end of the 1990s, Saratoga Mall floundered and was
torn down to make room for Wilton Square, which opened
with stores including Home Depot, Target, Circuit City and
Barnes & Noble. The Cobblestone Court Mobile Home Park
shut down, as did the Trice Jeron car dealership. Just down
the road on Route 50, Rex TV & Appliance and Benson’s Pet
Center occupied the former Moore’s Lumber Co. lot. The
brand-new Lowe’s Home Improvement Center, and fast

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Saratoga
Mall Demolition
(late 1990s)

food restaurants including Taco Bell, KFC, and Applebee’s
also opened nearby.
The Walmart Supercenter was put in and the Saratoga
Regional YMCA – Wilton Branch opened up as its neighbor
on Old Gick Road in 2012. The Albany Public Market, the
first large supermarket chain in upstate New York, was
replaced by Price Chopper. Where Standard Furniture
once stood, the Wilton Medical Arts complex now resides.
Roadways and bridges were built in the Exit 15 area to
accommodate the additional traffic demands, as well.
“They seem to plop right in,” said Gordon about the slew of
businesses that have filled in this area in the last two decades.

A Cash Machine

While the city of Saratoga Springs attracts tourists, Wilton
gives those tourists the large-scale shopping experiences
they’re looking for. Deemed by many as the town’s “cash
machine,” this retail development fills a need in Saratoga
County that goes beyond the elimination of town taxes for
Wilton residents since 1985.
“It takes money to do everything you want; we’re paying for
a lot,” said Gordon.
Arthur Johnson was the Town of Wilton Assessor for
fourteen years beginning in 1981, in addition to serving
in numerous other capacities, and has been the Town
Supervisor since 2002.
“The quality of life is why people want to move here, and
it’s not an easy thing to create. Our vision was to have a

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defined plan, and it’s been working. The commercial areas
do not infringe on the residential areas, and we’ve invested
a lot of money in recreation,” said Johnson.
Since he’s been in office, Johnson has strived to use the
money generated by the Exit 15 businesses wisely.
“We’ve built the fund balance up through conservative
spending and sales tax revenues,” he said.

An Unforeseen Future

As this decade draws to an end, Johnson predicts the rise
of online shopping will continue to be the biggest threat to
Saratoga County’s reliance on retail.
“It’s definitely affecting retail, which is not good for anybody.
Taxing online sales would be huge in alleviating a lot of the
county’s problems. It would save the brick and mortar stores
and level the playing field,” said Johnson.
Despite these fears, he remains optimistic.
“Exit 15 still has, in my mind, a bright retail future. We’re very
fortunate because we have good, viable stores with the
Walmart, Target, and home improvement stores,” he said.
Echoing these same concerns, O’Conor suggests creativity
will build Wilton’s future.
“What’s going to happen to all this retail space? It’s been a
real boon to the town. Now, there’s the whole Amazon effect.
To keep retail secure, it has to be more creative and provide
an experience that cannot be recreated on the internet.” •

TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 21

The Arrival Of
The Wilton Mall
W

hen Wilton announced they were going to put in
a second mall, people were skeptical.

in Rochester, planned a $75 million shopping mall in Wilton
within easy view of the already popular Pyramid Mall Saratoga.

Residents had been enjoying the money generated “People weren’t convinced at first, but I thought, Why Not?”
through sales tax revenues being used to eliminate said former Town Supervisor Roy McDonald.
the need to pay any town taxes since 1983. At the time, Wilton Knowing a rich commercial base brought in more sales tax
was the only town in the county to have done this, but there dollars, Wilton was already blossoming into the region’s
were still concerns about the concentrated development premier retail shopping district. A total of one million square
happening around Northway Exit 15.
feet of shopping opportunities would exist in just one square
Announced in October 1988, Wilmorite, a leading commercial mile of space, growing the town’s tax base by 50 percent.
real estate development and management company based

22 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

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Balancing Economy & Environment

At the time, the town was considered to have the most viable
Karner blue butterfly population in the Eastern United States.
A federally protected endangered species, during its larval
stage it depends solely on the leaves of the wild blue lupine.

Environmental assessments, including soil erosion and
sediment control measures had to be submitted for approval.
Wetland, vegetation and stream protections were also put
in place. Zoning ordinances that regulated water resources
including the Snook Kill and Little Snook Kill Rivers, Delegan
Brook and Bog Meadow Brook addressed soil conservation
but also water quality, fish and wildlife populations, aesthetic
appeal. They also attempted to prevent flooding and storm
damage to structures.

Protecting the butterfly was the catalyst behind the effort to
conserve this increasingly rare landscape.

The need to balance development with ecological
preservation and providing Wilton residents with a high
quality of life was something the town officials always “The butterfly was here, I had been seeing it, but blue lupine,
attempted to do in their decision-making process.
really to me, was just another wildflower,” said Larry Gordon,
Excavation of large parcels was put under the town’s former Saratoga County Planner.
jurisdiction after then Town Councilman Ray O’Conor wrote Wilton is part of the geologically significant Saratoga
the Soil and Wetlands Conservation Law. The legislation was Sandplains, an area of ancient sand dunes, wetlands and
in response to the clearing of 100 acres of woodland on the diverse ecological communities including meadows of
Wilton Mall site in the late 1980s.
lupine that are the habitat for the Karner blue butterfly.

Building the 600,000 square foot
mall created approximately 1,200
construction jobs in the area. A
multimillion dollar investment
by Wilmorite paid for roads and
sewer systems to be rebuilt and
expanded, including the Route 50
bridge at Exit 15. Because of the
impact made from construction
and other vehicles travelling to
and from the site, maintenance to
Saratoga roadways was addressed,
as well.

Other threatened animal species include the Indiana bat,
northern long-eared bat, frosted elfin butterfly, eastern
spadefoot toad, blanding turtle, spotted turtle, and eastern
hognose snake would be threatened, as well.
The loss and fragmentation of open habitat area due to
development was a major concern for some, but others
were critical.

"
"

People weren`t convinced
at first, but I thought...

Why Not?

“’What are you doing playing
with the flowers and butterflies
out here?’ people wanted to
know. Then people were more
accepting that this is an outreach
area,” Gordon recalls. An active
supporter of the Boy Scouts for
decades, Gordon’s property is
adjacent to Camp Saratoga, which
operated as a Boy Scout camp
from 1930 to 2001.

In 1996, a 1.1 acre parcel was the
beginning of a dream of a 3,000 acre
The Wilton Mall opened in August
preserve for wildlife including the
1990, with anchor stores Addis &
butterfly
and a park for the people.
-former
Town
Supervisor
Roy
McDonald
Dey, Sears, Roebuck and Co., and
Wilton Wildlife Preserve & Park’s
Steinbach. It was a large open
partners are the Town of Wilton,
space featuring skylights, live
The
Nature
Conservancy
and
New York State Department of
plants, and fountain courts.
Environmental Conservation, along with Saratoga County.
By the one-year anniversary of its construction, the Wilton There is an active Board of Directors made up of dedicated
Mall had an eight-screen cinema and a food court with a area individuals with a mission focused on conservation,
carousel made by the Venice-based Bertazzon. It boasted environmental education, and outdoor recreation.
a total of 59 businesses within its walls, and more were
“This is too nice of an area not to be used, with rugged
opening regularly.
trails and the Karner blue butterfly. People need these
Some stores, including Radio Shack and Friar Tuck Books, types of places. We got what we wanted,” said former Town
found it beneficial to open up shop in both the Pyramid and Supervisor Roy McDonald.
Wilton Mall locations, despite their proximity. J.C. Penny Co.
had its grand opening, with retailers Lane Bryant, Barbara Wilmorite sold the Wilton Mall in 2005 to the Macerich
Moss, and Afterthoughts Boutique coming soon after. Company of Arizona, the third-largest owner and operator
of shopping centers in the United States.
Montgomery Ward & Co. opened at Wilton Mall in 1992.

If a Butterfly Flaps its Wings...

Since the 1980s, the Nature Conservancy and the New York
State Department of Environmental Conservation had been
monitoring how the development in Wilton was impacting
the environment.

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A reenactment of the first town meeting 200 years ago will
be held in the Wilton Mall at 3065 NY-50, on Friday, April
20th from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Afterwards, a showing of “Wilton
200,” a documentary movie about the town, will be at the
Wilton Mall’s Bowtie Cinema. •

TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 23

Art Johnson, Daughter Nicole Quaglia and Wife, Sandy Johnson

Art Johnson
Has It All Figured Out

orking as the Wilton Town Supervisor since
2002, Johnson strives to accomplish what is in
the peoples’ best interest. The formula involves
residential and commercial construction, as well
as the infrastructure to support it. It factors in
agricultural needs, recreational opportunities, and open space.

W

“It’s an important mix,” said Johnson.

Doing the Math

Art married his wife Sandy in 1971. Originally attracted to
the city of Saratoga Springs, the young couple moved to
Wilton when they found an affordable and relatively rural lot
available two years later.

24 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

An employee of the New York Department of Tax and
Finance for 34 years, Johnson totaled up the value of the
town’s property assets as the Town Assessor for fourteen
years before becoming a town councilman and its Deputy
Supervisor. In his current role as Town Supervisor, he serves
on numerous agencies, boards, partnerships and committees,
discussing what people want and how to pay for it.
It’s a job that requires a balance of earnestness and
decision-making, something he learned to do by modeling
the actions of those that came before him, including former
Town and County Supervisor Roy McDonald.
“Roy had vision. I learned from him. He’s more aggressive
and I’m more mellow, but he was a mentor to me. He really
started Wilton,” said Johnson.

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Grand Opening of Saratoga
Hospital Park Place • 2017

Taking the Test

In November 2002, after spreading sand during a light
snowstorm, a truck parked inside the Wilton Highway
Department garage on Traver Road had an electrical
malfunction and ignited. The consequent blaze destroyed
a huge portion of the town’s equipment. In just a few hours,
there was $2 million in damage.

The Wilton Town Highway Department is responsible for
maintaining approximately 100 miles of roadway. They lost
six snowplows, two tractors, two pickup trucks and two leaf
machines in the fire. The town court building located nearby
also sustained minor smoke and water damage.
After the fire, three snow plows were salvaged and repaired
while three others that were undamaged and some that
were borrowed from surrounding communities took up
residence at DA Collins on Ballard Road for the winter.
The relationships built between the towns and counties that
helped out in Wilton’s time of need were incredible, said
Johnson. Responsibilities for rearranging road activities
that winter were compacted by the need to file stacks of
insurance claims.
It was a tough time and the support he received enabled
the construction of a new facility featuring an office
complex and a 13,500 sq. ft. garage with 16 bays, as well as
the repairs of another eight bays from the old garage that
survived the fire.
“I’m very pleased to have accomplished that,” said Johnson.
Community Day at the
Saratoga Race Course • 2017

Studying for the Future

Johnson is now calculating what can still be achieved.
“We have a much younger community than those around us
– recreation is very important, schools are very important…
We believe in connectivity and do it whenever we can. We
are what we are,” he said.
For those critics that wonder if Wilton is built out, Johnson
says there is still room to grow.
“The lands are there. Spaces for the large track subdivisions
don’t exist anymore, but on a smaller scale there are
housing construction opportunities. Off Exit 16 there are
shovel-ready properties. Everything is in place, those are
really good lands for development,” said Johnson.
Moving forward, it’s important to remember how far
we’ve come.
“There are a lot of great events that folks will enjoy the rest of
the year. The Wilton Bicentennial is a great way to celebrate
and remember our 200th birthday.” •

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Grand Opening of Wilton
YMCA expansion • 2012

TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 25

An
Interview
With

Roy McDonald
I

t’s hard to be happy when it’s hard to find a job.

Roy McDonald understands this, which is why he
vigorously went after employment opportunities
for the Town of Wilton during his 23 years as Town
and County Supervisor. As part of a dynamic team of
enterprising government officials and businessmen, sheer
determination created the fastest growing community with
the lowest unemployment rates in New York State – and it’s
all been done with no town taxes for 35 years.

“I’m not a superstar; I’m just a regular person. I had a lot of
good people all around me,” said McDonald.

From Square One

Throwing 50 lb. bags of lime, teetering on a narrow ramp
over hydrochloric acid in the “pickle house”, and picking up
garbage – this was the summer job that allowed McDonald
to pay his way through school at Hudson Valley Community
College before earning his master’s degree at SUNY Oneonta.
His father worked at the steel mill for forty years. Many in
McDonald’s Irish family worked there at one time or another.
Serving in the US Army’s 1st Cavalry Division in the Vietnam
War, he still remembers the harrowed soldiers he spent
time with and the toll life’s hardships can take. These
experiences developed him into the practical person he is
today, as did a saying from those days that sums it all up for
him – “There it is.”

It paid better than other jobs, but working in a steel mill was hard.
26 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

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Careful Planning

Getting what he said was a great head start from the work
of Robert Gavin, former Wilton Town Supervisor, with
zoning regulations, the building of the Wilton Mall, and
the transition of the Wilton Developmental Center into
McGregor Prison, a master plan for the further development
of Wilton was composed.
“What a trail he started for us. It was the beginning of malls,”
said McDonald.
Eager to obtain input from the community, McDonald’s
outreach initiatives brought many more people to some
of the public meetings than even he expected. It was
standing room only when more than 200 people showed
up to voice their opinions at Dorothy Nolan Elementary
School so changes to the plan could be made before it
was adopted in 1990.
“We had to start from scratch for everything, but people vote
with their feet,” he said.

A Balanced Approach

father. I like getting out with the kids, it’s a lot of fun,” he said.
For those working all day, the visual therapy value of
getting out into nature can’t be underestimated. As a kid
growing up in Troy, playing baseball and watching the
games at Knickerbocker Park was his world, said McDonald.
Providing that same kind of active recreation through the
opportunities available at Gavin Park is something he is very
proud of, he said. The passive recreation at Wilton Wildlife
Preserve & Park is something that he still enjoys with his
two autistic grandsons.
“The thing they like most is hiking, it’s comforting for
them,” he said.
Expanding educational opportunities is the future of Wilton,
predicts McDonald. While change is inevitable, the fact
that momentum progresses a town forward stays the same.
While McDonald moved on from his supervisory role to
serving on the New York State Assembly and New York
State Senate, one simple fact remained.
“We got to build a town. I like that,” he said.
There it is. •

Quality of life is an important factor to consider for the
present and future of a town. Comprised of responsible
residential, commercial, and industrial building, the
infrastructure to support them in the form of a network
of roadways, pedestrian pathways, water and sanitation
services, and more, must be considered.
For example, through McDonald’s leadership, Saratoga
County became only the second county in the state to
institute a systematic 911 emergency response strategy.
Circa 1979

“The post office didn’t catch up with all the people moving in.
I remember this woman was cooking with oil and a grease
fire broke out. She called three different fire departments.
They kept telling her she wasn’t in their district and to call
someplace else. The fire spread from the stove to the wall
to the kitchen, and then all three fire departments showed
up – but that’s how it was – you never knew if somebody was
going to your house,” said McDonald.

Natural Streams

Roy and his wife, Angelina Zaccagnino-McDonald, are the
parents of three daughters. Being a father afforded him a
unique perspective on business.

“I’d say, ‘I’m going to the mall’, and boom, they’re in the car,”
he remembers. The appeal of concentrated retail shopping
was what the young people, who were fleeing the sprawling
urban areas to move to Wilton, were looking for.

Roy & Angela
McDonald with
their family on
opening day of
Gavin Park

“The retail is very, very important to us. It’s voluntary taxation
through sales tax. Commuters too spend a lot of money –
they need stuff,” said McDonald.
Building in undeveloped natural space was also a defining
feature of McDonald’s years in office.
“They called me a “Green Republican” and said, ‘Gee, Roy,
you’re turning into an environmentalist’, but what I am is a

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TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 27

Progress
Pioneer:

Michael Dennis
M

ichael Dennis had a tremendous impact on
Wilton’s landscape.

He demonstrated that excellence achieved
through extraordinary accomplishments as a real
estate developer doesn’t diminish one’s ability to treat the
community in a monumental manner.

“Mike was always community oriented. He served on various
boards. He was definitely a community leader,” said Wilton
Town Supervisor Art Johnson.

Teeing Up to Take-Off

Dennis graduated from the University of South Carolina
with a degree in business economics in 1969. After serving
in the U.S. Army, he was a member of the New York State Air
National Guard 247 Medical Company for five years.
Mike’s father, George Dennis, bought McGregor Links

28 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

Country Club in 1970. Originally opened in 1921, it is still
considered to be one of the more challenging courses in
the Northeast, complete with a classic columned club house
and picturesque secluded setting.
Managing the property with his wife JeanAnn, Dennis
became owner and president of Dennis Land Development
Co., Inc. in 1971.

Breakthrough Home Builder

The next three decades were filled with a massive buildup
of residential housing options in Wilton. Dennis joined the
Wilton Planning and Zoning boards, organized the Wilton
Water Supply Company, and was an active participant in the
Saratoga County Sewer District.
He built neighborhoods and strengthened the community
of Wilton with ten subdivisions, nearly 2,000 residences, a
60-acre medical and professional office park, and a public
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water supply system. Combining an equal obligation to
build affordable housing with protecting water resources,
he was a proponent of the public and private sectors
working together on the concept of clustered housing.
These subdivisions provide more open space and preserve
the environment in a way that is also fiscally beneficial. Kings
Mills Estate was a model of this type of building design. The
69 houses were positioned to allow for 100 acres of fields,
forest, and natural resources within the property.

Business & Community Savvy

A prominent businessman, Dennis served as a member of
the Saratoga Springs Chamber of Commerce, the Saratoga
Builders Association, the Center for Economic Growth, the
Saratoga Economic Development Corporation, and on the
board of the Adirondack Trust Company to help shape the
economic and educational future of the area.
He was instrumental to the settlement of GlobalFoundries
to the Capital District. To prepare students to work at
GlobalFoundries and other tech-related firms moving into
the area, SUNY Adirondack’s Wilton Campus on Route 9
was expanded by the Mountain Ledge Ltd. Partnership, in
which Dennis was a principal partner. The former site of
Adirondack Community College (for which he served on

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the Foundation Board of Directors) now provides more
classrooms, lab space, and an auditorium for the Wilton
student body that has more than doubled in size.
Michael Dennis donated land on Jones Road to the Town of
Wilton for the construction of the Wilton Emergency Squad
Building (in 1986) and Wilton Fire Company’s second
station on Ballard Road. Governor George Pataki appointed
Dennis commissioner to New York State Parks, Recreation
and Historic Preservation and he served on the Wilton
Historical Preservation Commission for more than 25 years.
He was a supporter of organizations including the
Saratoga Center for the Family and the Alzheimer’s
Association of Northeastern New York, a cause for which
he raised nearly one million dollars. Dennis’ parents both
battled Alzheimer’s disease, the same illness to which he
succumbed in December 2014 at the age of 68. In addition
to his wife JeanAnn Parish Dennis; his family includes two
children, Ryan Michael Dennis and Erinn Catherine Kolligian,
and six grandchildren.
“We didn’t just work together, we were friends. We went
skiing and played golf. He was easy-going, articulate,
family-oriented and committed to the town. It was not just a
business relationship, I’ve know a lot of these guys forever –
they really go the extra mile,” said former Town and County
Supervisor Roy McDonald. •

TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 29

Ray O'Conor
Purposeful by Nature

"Whatever you can do,

or dream you can,
begin it! Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”
– J.W. von Goethe

Guiding Principles

No one made more of an impact on developing Ray’s
unshakable set of guiding ethics more than his own parents.
Joseph O’Conor was an insurance adjuster who went on to
become a lawyer, while also caring for his family.

Along with a team of inspired individuals, Ray O’Conor
helped to build the town of Wilton. He began his
professional career defending the country’s borders and
“It was a challenge – having a daughter and three sons, and
working as a special agent for the U.S. Defense Department. it weighed on him,” said Ray. The daily stress and lack of
regular exercise contributed to the need for Joseph to
Continuing to look after the well-being of the country’s
undergo
his first coronary bypass surgery at the age of 47
citizens, he spent more than 25 years supervising their
and
open-heart
surgery at 61.
financial interests at Saratoga National Bank, while working
with a long list of community service groups.

“In my life, the people that made the biggest impression were
hardworking and honest as the day is long. They were all of a
similar mind – always try to do the right thing,” said Ray.
30 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

“I watched everything my dad went through. I never smoked.
I stopped drinking – it’s been 38 years since my last drink,”
he said. Instead, Ray focuses on being physically fit. He’s run
everything from 5K races to full marathons and completed an
Ironman competition. In his sixties, he hikes an average of 20
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miles per week and just finished the Winter 46–climbing all
of the Adirondack Mountain’s 46 high peaks in winter.
Living in a neighborhood that opens up to the Wilton
Wildlife Preserve & Park, Ray regularly enjoys an open area
that he helped to create.
“Everybody loves the fact that we can go right out our door
and cross-country ski, or bare boot it on the trails. The
sounds of owls, birds and crickets surround you - it’s like
magic,” he said.

Unshakable Love

Helen Gregg, Ray’s mother, is the daughter of Irish
immigrants. Growing up in the fifth floor apartment of a
Hell’s Kitchen tenement, she watched her father struggle
with mental illness while attempting to support the family
on the wage of an elevator operator.

Thinking that happily-ever-after only happens to other
people, she escaped this depressed lot in life when, at
16, she literally ran into a young man named Clarence
Raymond Stephenson in New York City’s Central Park.

member of his crew, as well as his sister, who showed Ray
his diary entry from the day he met Helen. It read, “I met a
lovely girl in Central park today, Miss Helen Gregg. I think
this will change my entire future life.”

Informed Decisions

Working for two years on the screenplay of the book, it was
recently nominated for Best Script 2018 by the International
Christian Film and Music Festival.

“There’s a fine line between bold and stupid,” said Ray. It’s
advice that he keeps in mind while mountain climbing, as
well as throughout his years on regulatory boards including
the Wilton Town Board, Saratoga County Planning Board,
and while developing the town’s master plan.
Managing the growth of business, jobs, and the economy
while balancing it with wildlife preservation is a legacy that
he continues as the CEO of the Saratoga County Capital
Resource Corporation, which strives to create jobs while
acting in the public interest.

“Anytime you take on a project that has an impact on the
Their love affair blossomed into her first marriage two years later. public it’s best to one: gather all the facts, and two: talk to
people that have a point of view and beliefs that are both
Serving as a B17 pilot during World War II, Helen tragically lost
the same, and different than yours,” he said.
her first love, but in honor of him, gave her son his name.
His next tale of opportunity was inspired by a man (his guide)
“She never lost that place in her heart for her first husband,”
who he met while climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Ray has
said Ray. In 2012, Ray left his “good job at a great company”
discovered
that the more he learns, the better the story gets.
to research and chronicle their love story in his book, “She
Called Him Raymond”.

“Once I decided to take the plunge – as soon as I made that
commitment – all sorts of instrumental things happened,” he said.
These included meeting Stephenson’s siblings and a

Ray below the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro

Ray’s own legacy is one indelibly intertwined with the
history of Wilton’s growth.

ositioned at an intersection just off Adirondack Northway
Exit 16, businessman Frank Parillo is guided by one thing.

“I strive to make people happy. If we don’t, someone
else will,” he said.

"What`ll It Be?"

Understanding and giving people what they want has been
Parillo’s driving force since the beginning. After graduating
from Ballston Spa High School in 1962, he went on to
Husson University in Maine. There he met his wife Delores.
They married in 1966, and moved to Wilton in 1970. A 90acre farm on the corner of Ballard and Edie Road was the
first piece of what would come to be a number of property
holdings here, many of which are centered around the New
York Interstate Highway Exit 16 area.
32 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

“Wilton is a great community,” said Parillo.
Working as a marketing representative with the Shell Oil
Company, he was a tenant before purchasing and then
reopening a small gas station on Ballard Road in 1975. The
Wilton Shell Service station site grew to include Scotty’s
Restaurant in 1977 with additional office space and a store in
1984. Another expansion in 1986 added on even more office
space to the building now known as the Wilton Travel Plaza.
“Starting with a two-bay gas station with a couple of pumps,
and ending up with a twenty-acre travel plaza with ninety
employees - that are all part of making Wilton Travel Plaza
a success – that’s a great success story. This is where it all
started,” said Parillo, whose real estate development company,
Saratoga Prime Properties, LLC, has many area assets.
Being one of only two truck stops on the interstate at the

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time, today, eighty-percent of Wilton Travel Plaza business
comes from repeat customers, said Parillo.
“There’s not too many restaurants open 24 hours,” he added.

" Fill̀er Up"

Generous portions of home-cooked food served up all-day,
every day, at reasonable prices (including Parillo’s favorite;
the eggs and corned beef hash) is what Scotty’s Restaurant
is known for. The Wilton Travel Plaza’s fully-stocked service
station and convenience store is also equipped with a
comfortable trucker’s lounge and more than 200 parking
spaces for large vehicles.
Frank’s father Jim Sr., his brother Jim Jr. and his son Scott
(who the restaurant is named after) have all helped this
multi-generational family business grow. Parillo also credits
his many long-term and late-shift employees, as well as the
town itself, for their success spanning more than 40 years.

Scotty’s Today

“The Town of Wilton, planning and zoning boards,
supervisor, and other town officials have been very open to
new ideas, have been receptive to business and realize the
importance of it,” said Parillo.

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TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 33

Frank with his son, Scott

"At Your Service"

In addition to Scotty’s Restaurant and the Wilton Travel
Plaza, Exit 16 is also the home to commercial distribution
giants ACE Hardware Corp., Target, The Medical Center at
Wilton, Alpin Haus RV, and other offices and companies
that provide a significant amount of jobs in the region,
while fostering substantial revenue streams into the local
economy through gasoline and diesel sales tax dollars.

“We’re so close to the exit that we really haven’t had
complaints about road impact. The trucking industry is really
important to the business of the United States of America,
especially since there are no more trains,” said Parillo.
In addition to servicing those traveling through Wilton,
the Parillo family strives to be responsible neighbors
to residents within the local community. This includes
participating as a Saratoga-Wilton Youth Baseball sponsor,
helping to support the Wilton Food Pantry, and many years
of involvement with the Boy Scouts of America, for which
Parillo was honored to receive the 2017 Good Scout Award
last year (along with Wilton resident Larry Gordon).
“I want to thank the Wilton community for allowing us to be
part of a great town,” said Parillo. •

34 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

Frank with his very
successful motto

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TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 35

Finishing Touches...

Preserving
the Past
L

ooking past its then dingy appearance, Shelly Walker
saw potential in the Gurn Springs Methodist Episcopal
Church, originally built in 1885 at Emerson’s Corners,
on Ballard Road.

In 2015, after renovating the interior, the Finishing Touches
Home Décor & More store and interior design office was
opened in the space.

“It has character that brand new stores just don’t have,” said Walker.

Gothic Revival

The picturesque charm of the carpenter gothic style church,
with its narrow pointed arch windows and quaint gabled
roof, has remained since it was constructed 133 years ago
at a cost of $2,000.
The center of early life in the Wilton hamlet, the church was
sold when the congregation joined with Gansevoort and
South Wilton Methodist churches to form the Wilton Trinity
United Methodist Church.
“It’s a real asset that has a lot of history to it,” said the
church’s current owner, Frank Parrillo.
An 11-year resident of the town, Walker revived the space
next to the Wilton Travel Plaza with her significant other
Doug Dockendorf, owner of Priority Electric, Priority Home
Solutions, and 1888ChuckIt, in just five months.
The majority of improvements were done to repair the
extensive water damage caused from foundation cracking
and water flooding in from the adjacent cemetery grounds.
“Water was just streaming into the place,” said Dockendorf.
A dilapidated kitchen and dining area were removed from
the basement and its concrete walls were sanded and
repainted to create a large showroom space.
36 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

On the main level, the bathroom was redone, and the raised
altar and organ floors were taken out. The wide plank pine
floors were refinished once the carpeting was stripped
away; the dark grey walls and trim were repainted.
Quatrefoil windows and architectural detailing on the
exterior (common to churches of the period) emphasize
the Edwardian light fixtures hanging down from the
high ceilings. The entrance is home to nests of chirping
bluebirds and finches in the church’s cupola.

Spiritual Spruce Up

Since occupying the space, Walker has been introduced to
its haunted history.
The sounds of creaking floor boards and ringing bells are said
to be the spirit of two young boys, and the ghost of a man
sitting in a back pew has been seen there, but customers
haven’t been bothered by their harmless presence, said Walker.
The church atmosphere adds to Finishing Touches’
philosophy that some things are worth saving. Antique
furniture pieces and accessories sit alongside the unique
handmade new items for sale.
Design Assistant Maxwell Reagan said the store’s
arrangement is much like the structure itself: with unique,
unexpected finds tucked in everywhere.
“I definitely, in my designs, love to mix new with old. It’s always a
fun design concept. Future generations should restore these old
things and buildings, otherwise they will be gone,” said Walker.
Finishing Touches Home Décor is located at 217 Ballard
Road in Wilton. They were awarded Wilton Historical
Society’s 2017 Preservation Award and will be featuring
special discounts during the Wilton Historic Site Tour on
Saturday, April 21st and Sunday, April 22nd, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. •
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TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 37

38 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

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Photos Courtesy of Saratoga Room, Saratoga Springs Public Library

The Story of
the Mountain
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TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 39

A photo of Artist Lake, man-made lake behind the Metropolitan
Life Insurance Company’s “Sanatorium on the Mountain”

Among the town of Wilton’s earliest
settlers were the McGregor families
who came from Scotland in 1787.
Industrial brothers who were farmers
that also operated a grist mill,
Duncan McGregor built a small hotel
on a portion of his property that
came to be known as Mt. McGregor.
In the 1880s the Saratoga, Mt. McGregor and Lake George
Railroad bought the hotel, which became the “cottage” of
financier Joseph W. Drexel, who helped to develop the ten
and a half mile track system that ran from North Broadway
in Saratoga Springs to the top of the mountain.

Former President General Ulysses S. Grant occupied the
house in his last days surrounded by the peaceful Mt.
McGregor landscape. The property has been maintained as
he left it and is now known as Grant Cottage.

A Place of Rest

As soon as a railroad was completed to the top of
Mt. McGregor, construction began on the gracious,
four-story Hotel Balmoral.
40 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

In 1883, it was one of only three at the time to be lit by
electricity. The Hotel Balmoral was billed as “free from fog
and dew” and the “cheapest and most popular excursion in
the country”. When it opened under the management of Mr.
Albert Frost, it was capable of accommodating 250 guests,
with each room opening onto the wide veranda encircling
the structure. It was destroyed by fire in 1897.
The Balmoral hotel was covered by a $28,000 insurance
policy. In 1898, it was sold to A.M. Robinson and G.N. Rich of
North Adams, Mass. for $70,000. In 1913, the Metropolitan
Life Insurance Company developed a tuberculosis
sanatorium to care for thousands of their employees on the
site. The “Sanatorium on the Mountain” had a labyrinth of
underground passages used to transport the bodies of those
who died from the disease off the premises.
New York State claimed the facility in 1945 as a World
War II veteran’s rest home. Offering large windows with
magnificent views, a 1915 Mission-style chapel, and the
Artist’s Lake… the Veteran’s Camps served as a picturesque
reprieve before transitioning back into civilian life.
The Wilton State School, formerly a division of the Rome
State School for Mental Retardation, occupied the site
from 1960 until 1975. These New York State Department
of Mental Hygiene clients were transferred to the Wilton
Developmental Center.

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Complex Considerations

The New York State Department of Corrections operated
the Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility on the grounds
beginning in 1976, when the first busload of 33 inmates
traveled up the winding road to the mountaintop minimum
security prison. The prison’s population quickly grew to 150
residents, with 75 beds in each of the dormitories and one
holding cell in each.
The “mountain magic” formula for rehabilitation at the facility
focused on self-improvement through a work camp structure.
Crews of inmates were to use time constructively doing
public service work in the community. Violence was minimal
it was reported, because prisoners didn’t want to risk getting
transferred. Because of the number of escapes from the
massive property, it became known as “Camp Walkaway.”
New additions upgraded sections of the prison to mediumlevel security. These changes included the installation of
seven more cells, and the construction of at least 12’ fences
topped with razor wire and sensors to detect movement
around the property. Additional guards were hired, two
lookout towers were built near the recreation fields and
main yard, and a truck stop inspection station was opened
along the roadway. This allowed the facility to house a total
of 350 minimum security and 550 medium security inmates

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in a state system that was struggling with overcrowding in
the 1980s and ‘90s.
The trend reversed by the summer of 2009 when only
49 of the minimum security beds were occupied. A long
decommission process began to close-out the prison
when it was selected as one of four within the state to
shut-down because of the declining prison population.
The NYSCOPBA correctional officers union tried to place
some of the facility’s 320 employees at the Great Meadow
Correctional Facility in Comstock 45-minutes away, when Mt.
McGregor finally closed.
Spread across multiple municipalities, portions of the 1,000
acre property are still awaiting a new use. The Moreau Lake
State Park owns 750 acres of the open space. Infrastructure
improvements are needed to occupy the buildings because
there is no natural gas supply and it relies on water from a
pond on-site.
“The Mt. McGregor Prison property we share with Moreau
closed in 2014. There were more than 300 jobs lost, so
we’re really anxious to redevelop and get those jobs back.
It’s a beautiful property but it’s going to take a lot of vision
and a lot of money,” said Town Supervisor Art Johnson.

TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 41

The "White Elephant" of Wilton

The Place for ACE

The historic buildings on Mt. McGregor’s large property
were reopened in 1961 as the annex of the Rome State
School for Mental Retardation (a name that was later
changed to the Wilton Developmental Center). The facility
remained operational until November 1975 when the
residents were transferred to the new Wilton Development
Center building on Ballard Road.

The job of what to do with the property became the
responsibility of the Wilton Developmental Taskforce, which
was comprised of 10 members; four state, three county, and
three town representatives.

When a possession becomes burdensome, it earns
the status of a white elephant; rare and valuable, but
with it comes the expensive proposition of caring for
it responsibly. Wilton’s white elephant was the Wilton
Developmental Center.

Twenty years later, the Wilton Developmental Center was
among 19 state-run institutions that were shut down. The
450 residents were moved to group homes and 1,000 state
employees lost their jobs. The substantial white concrete
structure, with its distinctive dark tinted bubble windows,
was hungry for habitation.

42 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

It was going to take a taskforce to redevelop the 344-acre
site complete with dormitories, a large kitchen, dining room,
swimming pool and truck bay. The New York State Office of
Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities planned
to use 60 acres for a summer camp program.

The taskforce’s decisions have been developed into a
construction case study so that others may learn from their
example. Out of all the communities experiencing closures at
the time, Wilton came up with the most successful solution.
After buying the property from the state, they sold 130 acres
to ACE Hardware. Their $35 million investment in the parcel
west of the developmental center building included the
construction of a $21 million warehouse distribution center.
Opened in 1997, it was the second largest of fifteen centers
spread out along the east coast from Maine to North Carolina.
The 800,000 sq. ft. building has 25’ racks storing approximately
60,000 items that were selected, transferred by conveyor belts,
put on trucks and shipped out to more than 800 stores.

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Moving Over for Target

Within a mile of ACE, discount retail giant Target moved
in with the new millennium. New York only had six Target
stores back then, but already 800 had quickly popped up in
40 states and scores were being added each year.
Target was selling the latest fashions and home décor items
at low prices in clean, brightly-lit, wide aisles. More and
more people were choosing to make a Target run, leaving
competitors Caldor, Bradlees, Jamesway and Kmart to feel
the burn of being left behind.
The 1.1 million sq. ft. building owned by parent company,
the Minneapolis-based Dayton Hudson Corp., would add
up to 750 jobs to the area when it opened. Plans however,
positioned it to be built right on top of the existing North
Road near its intersection with Ballard Road.
Their $45 million blueprint for construction was adjusted
for an alternate North Road to be built, running 400 feet
west from its original location. An erosion control study was
conducted to ensure environmental protection procedures
could be put in place for the Snook Kill River, a stateclassified trout stream.

Center of Impact

warehouses. The Wilton Global Job Development Corp was
formed, led by Ray O’Conor.
“We added the word “Global” because that’s what we were
looking at; companies from all the places out there to move
in here and create jobs,” said O’Conor.
In 2003, D.A. Collins Companies began investing more
than $8 million in the 283,000 sq. ft. facility, which later
opened as their corporate headquarters. The group of civil
construction companies, originally founded by Donald A.
Collins in Mechanicville, is famous for building the Twin
Bridges, a pair of steel bridges spanning the Mohawk River
and connecting Albany County to Saratoga County.
By 2009, D.A. Collins was leasing the space that was the
Wilton Developmental Center swimming pool to Tech
Valley Technologies. This small business creates thermal
and hit sensitive responsive shooting targets for military,
law enforcement, commercial and sporting use. The
Developmental Center’s dormitory space was renovated
into offices and work areas for Saratoga Architectural
Millwork and Custom Cabinetry.
Wilton’s Blueprint for Economic and Job Growth laid
out the town’s continued “can do” attitude toward
building widespread impact – locally, regionally,
nationally and globally. •

Several years later, everyone was still talking about what
to do with the white elephant in this room of sprawling

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TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 43

Jeff Brisbin
Photo by Blackburn Portrait Design

T

Founders
Forevermore
raveling down trails established by the Native
Americans, Wilton’s early settlers were attracted to
the beautiful countryside so similar to that of their
Scottish homeland.

With fertile soil to farm, lush forests to hunt, lakes and rivers
to fish, brothers William and Samuel Brisbin chose the
wilderness on the south branch of the Snook Kill River of
what is now the town of Wilton, for a settlement in 1764.
Originally crossing as soldiers under Abercrombie and
Amherst in the French and Indian War, they returned to the
area, built a sawmill and cut roads before moving west with
the arrival of the Revolutionary War.

44 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

Enduring Interest

Brisbin became a name so intimately associated with this region
that it lives on here, as does a ghost of the Brisbins, their father
James, who seems to be in no hurry to depart. James came with
his second wife Margaret Carruth, at about the same time as his
sons. A prosperous and influential farmer in Bacon Hill, there are
reports his ghost still haunts the property.
“When I was a kid, I never wanted to go in the house,” said their
descendant Jeff Brisbin, who remembers always wanting to
stay in the car when his family would visit. James is buried in a
family cemetery near Victory Mills, but both Jeff and his father
Douglas have a middle name of Carruth in honor of Margaret,
who was said to be an extraordinary woman.
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Reestablished Wonder

Despite his eerie early experiences near Schuylerville, Jeff
remembered the significant contribution his family made to the
creation of Wilton and was drawn to the area as an adult. He
bought his first house in the town, on Davidson Drive, in 1972.
A full-time musician, Jeff now lives and works in the upstairs
office of his Moonglow Road home while watching the
plethora of visiting birds. Named the “Moonglow Resort,”
the property has a large patio and is situated on a corner lot
surrounded by natural forest.
“History repeats itself. I love history, history is fantastic,” said Jeff.

Ever Present Love

An affordable home, great schools, recreational
opportunities, a shopping mecca, and the vibrant small city
of Saratoga Springs nearby provided a great quality of life
for the Brisbin’s six children, said Jeff.
“This area really is amazing when you think about it.” •

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isiting the resting place of lost loved ones provides a
sense of peace to the living. Monuments detailing their
family and life honor those who have died, and are
physical remembrances for those who mourn them.

“Cemeteries show respect for the people that came before
– they show the soul of the town,” said Jeannine Woutersz,
Wilton Town Historian.
Genealogists and history buffs search the stones for their

46 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

family’s roots and to find connections. Often the town’s
first parks, graveyards are serene landscaped settings for
walkers and runners. The beauty and tranquility found within
these outdoor museums attracts photographers and other
artists interested in the carvings and symbolism found on
headstones, as well as the stories depicted there. Investigating
dates can reveal a widespread fatal illness or a heartbreaking
loss. Quotes, sayings and other inscriptions provide even
more insight into the time and the people that lived during it.
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Seeing the Cemeteries

The town of Wilton has 16 designated
cemeteries; 11 were once family
burial places that are now owned and
maintained by the Wilton Highway
Department. During the 1990s,
encroachment protections were
put in place limiting the building of
structures within a hundred feet of
these hallowed grounds.
The “Old Gurn Springs Cemetery,”
also known as the “Emerson’s Corners
Cemetery” is adjacent to the former
Gurn Springs Methodist Episcopal
Church, originally built in 1885 at
Emerson’s Corners on Ballard Road.
Located just off Northway Exit 16, the
church has been renovated and is
now open as the Finishing Touches
Home Décor & More store and
interior design office space.

The “Brick Church Cemetery”
on Northern Pines Road has more
than 250 burial markers. The Baptist
Brick Church was built in 1854, but
burned in 1935.
“Dimmick Road Cemetery”, with stones
dating from the early 1800s, includes a
Revolutionary War Lieutenant.

The Wilton Historic Site Tour
will have docents and printed
information about Wilton’s
cemeteries and churches as well
as several other historic sites.
The Tour begins at the Wilton
Heritage Society Museum, 5
Parkhurst Road, on Saturday,
April 21st and continues on
Sunday, April 22nd. The selfguided tour goes from 10 a.m.
to 3 p.m. both days. •

Across the street from the “Old Gurn
Springs Cemetery” is the “John
Ellsworth Cemetery” also known as
“New Gurn Springs” or simply “Gurn
Springs” cemetery. Beginning in
2000, Woutersz was among a group
who documented, cross-referenced
and mapped out the approximately
400 gravestones there.
Several early Town of Wilton officials
rest in the “South Wilton Cemetery”
located across the road from the
South Wilton Methodist Church.
Originally a family cemetery, this
burial place has graves dating back
to 1819. The property was deeded
to the South Wilton Methodist
Episcopal Church in 1854 when
the church was built. The church
served the community for more than
130 years, until its congregation
combined with other area
congregations to form the Wilton
Trinity United Methodist Church. The
cemetery is still active.
With others from the town of Wilton,
Woutersz and children from Dorothy
Nolan Elementary School held a
memorial ceremony at the “Louden
Cemetery” in 2000. Revolutionary
War drummer boy Edward Bevins,
who fought in the Battle of Bunker
Hill in June 1775, is buried at this
cemetery, which was established
in 1838 near the Loudon Protestant
Methodist Church. The chapel
burned in 1931.
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TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 47

48 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

www.saratogaTODAYnewspaper.com

Welcome to all
there is to see and
do in Wilton!

The Town of Wilton
is a community that truly has it all...
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TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 49

Looking over the vast landscape of his life, Ulysses S. Grant spent his last
month gazing out at the view from a cottage on a mountaintop in Wilton.

Grant Cottage
B

efore Grant was elected the 18th president of the
United States, he fought in the Mexican-American War,
and was a prominent general under the direction of
Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War.

Grant led the troops to victory in Vicksburg, Mississippi (on
the same day as the Union Victory in Gettysburg) in 1863.
That was the day that many point to as turning the tide of the
Civil War and the beginning of the end for the Confederacy.
Considered an inspired military genius, Grant struggled to
lead a country torn apart by slavery and war.
In the midst of change, there is tragedy but there is also
triumph. The support for civil rights that he demonstrated
was a brave example that we can still learn from today.

50 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

Telling the Tale

A house built in 1878 by Duncan McGregor and owned at
the time by Joseph Drexel proved to be the perfect escape
for this grand man who was suffering from throat cancer.

“Grant had his favorite chair on the porch. It has a
phenomenal view. From there he could see the entire
Hudson Valley and be reminded of American history,” said
Tim Welch, President of the Grant Cottage Historic Site.
Finishing his memoirs there just days before his death, the
book was published by Mark Twain and made what was in
today’s currency, the equivalent of millions of dollars in sales.
“In many ways he was always hesitant to write his memoirs
because he didn’t think he was a literary man,” said Welch.

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Spread the Word

There was an outpouring of support, and the nation was
united in its demonstrations of honor for Grant after his
death. Grant Cottage has been preserved as his family
left it, complete with Grant’s personal items among the
original furnishings.
“He is the most famous person to have died in Wilton,”
said Welch.
Grant Cottage is owned by the state, but depends on
admission fees, donations and volunteers. It has been
recognized in national news media broadcasts including
CBS Sunday Morning, the Travel Channel’s Mysteries at
the Museum, and C-SPAN. The number of visitors to the
historic site has doubled in less than a decade, said Welch.
Even 133 years after his death, Grant is leading the way for
others to see history’s rich landscape from his point of view.
A Civil War Weekend on Saturday August 11th, 10 a.m.
to 4 p.m. and Sunday, August 12th 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.,
at 269 Ballard Road in Wilton will be featuring more
than 100 reenactors dressed in uniform, with Calvary
horses, pitching tents and performing battle scenarios
with multiple canon blasts. Visually engaging displays
of military artifacts, author readings, musical groups,
food vendors and more will provide an educational and
exciting experience for all. More than 75 Wilton residents
who served in the Civil War will also be recognized.
Grant Cottage is featured in Tim Welch’s documentary,
“Wilton 200,” showing on Friday, April 20th at Bowtie
Cinema in the Wilton Mall, 3065 NY-50, at 7:30 p.m.
For more information go to grantcottage.net •

ottage
of Grant C
North view

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TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 51

Scouts at Camp Saratoga • Circa 1988

The Story of

Camp Saratoga
SUBMITTED BY LINDA BAKER & LARRY GORDON

I

n 1929 a 300-acre portion of the former Gick Farm
on Scout Road was purchased by Saratoga County
Council Boy Scouts to be developed as Camp Saratoga.
Community funding and volunteers soon constructed
a dining hall and cabins for camping as well as a swimming
and boating area on Delegan Pond. The old tenant farm
house and barn provided an office and area for various crafts.
In the winter, ice was harvested on the pond and was
sold to Borden’s milk plant in Gansevoort, which helped
scouting financially. Ice cutting continued into the late 30s.
During the 1930s and ‘40s Thomas Luther, a charter
member of council and scouts planted pine seedlings
which were selectively harvested along with native
hardwoods during the 80s.

A major community fund raising program by Donald A.
Collins, Chairman, was completed during 1972 and aided
in improving camp facilities.
52 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

Camp Saratoga continued to host all-season camping, hikes,
conclaves, and other outdoor programming until almost the
turn of the present century. As part of the Saratoga County
Council Boy Scouts of America, the scout camp played a
vital part in the area program for youth. Community leaders
and organizations contributed to the camp in many ways
over the years, with several buildings still bearing the names
of contributors such as Ellsworth and International Paper.
The Karner blue butterfly may have been identified at the Scout
camp as early as the 1960s when legendary Wilton naturalist
Dr. Orra Phelps inventoried plants in the area. Skidmore botany
students, led by Dr. Hank Howard, were aware of the butterfly in
the 1970s. The Scouting community, led by myself, the property
manager and a former Wilton Town Councilman, ensured
protection and enhancement of the environment needed by
the Karner blue beginning in the early 1980s.
Twin Rivers Boy Scout Council, formed from the merger of several
BSA councils in 1990, decided to sell Camp Saratoga in 1998.
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Established in 1996, Wilton Wildlife Preserve & Park
grew out of the vision of the Wilton Town Supervisor Roy
McDonald, who partnered with The Nature Conservancy to
start the new organization and establish an area for wildlife
preservation, environmental education and recreation.

The Wilton Wildlife Preserve & Park, Inc. provided a grant
which improved the waterfront facilities to the Baker
Environmental Pavilion. The Town of Wilton Maintenance
Department preserved various buildings and cabins with the
dining hall and kitchen to be upgraded in the near future.

Camp Saratoga’s history of community benefits to this
date. The State of New York Department of Environmental
Conservation and the Town of Wilton purchased Camp
Saratoga. Various programs and off-road trails are
maintained during the year by the state and the town.
Wilton Wildlife Preserve & Park and staff, along with
volunteers assist with maintenance and environmental
programs. The Town of Wilton contracts annually with
the Wilton Wildlife Preserve & Park, Inc., a non-profit
corporation to provide on-site public environmental
educational and recreational services. Local scout and other
community youth organizations register with the Town
of Wilton and Wilton Wildlife Preserve & Park for various
educational and recreational programs which can be found
on their respective websites.

A major improvement was completed by the Town in 2013
with the reconstruction of the Order of the Arrow Bush
Memorial Pavilion.

Of long-term interest is the service of approximately
fifty years at Camp Saratoga of Saratoga/Warren BOCES
Environmental Conservation and Forestry classes for onsite
programs and training at the camp.
The Nature Conservancy and New York State Department of
Environmental Conservation provided the original support
and direction in 1996 to preserve the endangered Karner
Blue butterfly at Camp Saratoga.
Many improvements have been accomplished since the
Town of Wilton purchased the historic Camp Saratoga.
The Wilton Rotary Club in 2005 created an interpretive
Centennial Nature Trail.
Alec Mackay representing the Luther/Mackay families
dedicated the relocation of the Cornell Hill Fire Tower to
Camp Saratoga. The tower was designated in 2017 on the
National Historic Lookout Register.

Many Boy Scout Eagle Award projects have been
completed in the past twenty years after the Twin Rivers
Council sale of the camp.

•

Troop 24 Lean-to camping area

•

Camp fire benches for large group seating

•

Wild Blue Lupine propagation and hand planting over a
large area along Scout Road and the cook’s cabin area

•
•

•

Stairways constructed to the pond and stream
Landscape fencing and campfire construction

Construction of six handicap accessible picnic tables
and reconstruction of the barbeque facility

The Town of Wilton has continued to provide budget
support for physical care and programming at Camp
Saratoga. This includes sponsorship of the annual youth
fishing and stocking at Delegan Pond. Numerous other
groups register with the town for property use, such as
the Saratoga Stryders trail races and snowshoe run, senior
bicycle touring events, Audubon programs and numerous
WWPP educational and recreational events.
When the camp was sold a plaque was dedicated as follows:
CAMP SARATOGA BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA
Saratoga County Council 1930-1990, Twin Rivers Council 1991-2001
71 Years of outdoor experience. For the community’s youth.
May the spirit of the tradition continue •

A fire tower observer’s cabin was built by BOCES students
and the Town of Wilton which was dedicated in 2013,
National Trails Day, to Donald A. Collins.
During 2016 and 2017 the town constructed a new water
supply and all-seasons comfort station.

Circa 1960

An aerial view of Camp Saratoga

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TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 53

Photo by Carolina Wierzbowski

Photo by Brian Teague

Photo by Wayne Jones

Wilton Wildlife Preserve & Park

Home of the

Karner Blue Butterfly!
WRITTEN BY CASEY REEDER

E

very week throughout the year, people in and around
the Wilton area gather at the Wilton Wildlife Preserve
& Park, home to the Karner Blue Butterfly Preserve,
for snow shoeing, skiing, educational programs and
numerous events to appreciate the land and its beauty, as well
as value the importance of nature and its continuity. This place
is truly a preserve for nature and a park for the people!

The Wilton Wildlife Preserve & Park has been interactively serving
its community for twenty years. Located in Saratoga County, New
York, the preserve and park is located within the geologically
significant Saratoga Sandplains, an area of ancient sand dunes
as well as small wetlands and diverse ecological communities.
The area is importantly home to the federally endangered Karner
blue butterfly, the main cause behind the inspiring effort of the
Karner blue butterfly preserve is to ensure the species a future, as
well as conserve this increasingly rare landscape.
The Wilton Wildlife Preserve & Park has been serving its
community since its founding in 1996. The Preserve and Park is
located within the geologically significant Saratoga Sandplains,
an area of ancient sand dunes as well as small wetlands and
diverse ecological communities. The sandplains ecosystem is
home to the federally endangered Karner blue butterfly. This
small blue butterfly was the catalyst that led to the creation of
the land protection effort that became known as Wilton Wildlife
Preserve & Park. This effort dates back to the 1980s when The
Nature Conservancy and the New York State Department
of Environmental Conservation were working in Wilton and
Northumberland to observe populations of the endangered
Karner blue butterfly. In 1996, Saratoga County auctioned off
1.1 acres of land which had wild blue lupine and Karner blue
butterflies living on it. The Nature Conservancy approached
the Town of Wilton and asked if the town could take ownership
54 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

of the property and transfer it to the Nature Conservancy. Roy
McDonald, the town supervisor, agreed, stating the parcel would
be the foundation of a 3,000 acre preserve for the butterfly,
and a park for area residents. An advisory board comprised of
members from the Town of Wilton, The Nature Conservancy,
NYS DEC, and interested citizens began the organization of
Wilton Wildlife Preserve & Park. It became incorporated in
New York State in 1998, as well as a nonprofit organization in
2001. Currently, there is an active Board of Directors made up
of dedicated area citizens, working to fulfill the mission that was
established at its founding; to conserve ecological systems and
natural settings while providing opportunities for environmental
education and outdoor recreation.
Today, over 2,400 acres protect significant habitats and more
than 20 miles of trails provide a wonderfully fun, healthy, and
educational resource for the community. Open daily from
dawn until dusk, the Wilton Wildlife Preserve and Park is home
to the largest population of Karner blue butterflies in the
Northeast. Not only the residence to this endangered butterfly,
the park aims to support its significant lands and provide
year-round environmental education programs for the public,
as well as recreational opportunities. Ample hiking and skiing
trails makes it easy to appreciate nature’s beauty throughout
the year. Educational programs aim to increase the public’s
awareness, knowledge, and appreciation of the ecologically
significant communities which exist beyond their back doors
through exposing people of all ages to the joy, excitement and
health benefits of being outdoors, with a hope they will realize
the ever-growing need for positive and effective change.
More information on the Wilton Wildlife Preserve & Park can be
viewed at wiltonpreserve.org. •

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...And So
Much More!
Cornell Hill Fire Tower

WRITTEN BY ARTHUR BOYER

T

he park is home to a large
variety of ecosystems such as
woodlands, wetlands and a
beautiful pond that features great
blue herons, belted kingfishes and a
colony of beavers. More than 120 species
of birds and 70 species of mammals, reptiles,
and amphibians inhabit this area. Among
them, the Karner blue butterfly, a scarce and
endangered species, whose ecosystem has been
mostly destroyed by deforestation, is protected and
contributes to the notoriety of the park.
All year round, the park offers a large variety of
activities such as hunting, fishing, and trapping.
Over 20 miles of hiking trails are open at all times
for those who feel a little more adventurous and
want to enjoy the beauty of the park from within.
Snow-related activities like cross-country skiing and
snowshoeing are also available during the winter
months for people who enjoy the outdoors. The
park offers educational programs to children and
young teens to further their awareness, knowledge
and appreciation of the natural environment that is
around them. These programs also include fun trips
such as nature walks and pond exploration.
If you weren’t convinced by the numerous activities
available, you can also visit and climb the Cornell
Hill Fire Tower. This tourist attraction is a 60-foot high
fire tower that was built in 1924 and relocated from
the Luther forest to this area in 2011. The monument
was recognized as a historic fire lookout in the
United States. The fire tower gives you a breathtaking view of the park and is a central point of
interest for many people visiting this area. •

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TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 55

Gavin Park Summer Camp Experience

Summers have a lot to look forward to… Warm weather, outdoor fun and

Gavin Park!
WRITTEN BY CASEY REEDER

T

his 53-acre facility, which includes two multi-purpose
gymnasiums, fifteen athletic and baseball fields,
walking paths, tracks, and much more is sure to
provide you and your family with the perfect activities
that can make this summer a season to remember.

Established in July 1988 by the town of Wilton, the park’s
future was a vision to meet the recreational needs of people in
and around the area. After four years of careful planning and
hard work through a number of town officials and volunteers,
the then 35-acre park was opened to the public. Families
gathered at the opening to admire the park’s two basketball
courts, three baseball fields, two football fields, and one soccer
field. The park was named after the late town supervisor
Robert Gavin, who held the establishment’s original vision.
Although restricted to bed due to illness, Gavin remained
heavily involved in the creation of the park, explained Jim
Robinson, Robert Gavin’s long-time friend. Eight years later,
the town of Wilton reached an agreement with the Saratoga
Springs City School District on the use of fifteen acres of
vacant land near Dorothy Nolan Elementary School which
would be transformed into sports fields. After years and the
hard work of many individuals and organizations, Gavin Park
has successfully grown into a place where people in and
around Wilton gather on a year-round basis.
This recreational center aims to enrich the quality of life
for residents, as well as visitors, and hopes to preserve it
for future generations. Mark Marino, the park’s recreation
administrator, describes the area as “the best wellkept secret” in this “very quaint community,” due to its
56 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

subtle location. Through the use of its facilities, Gavin
Park provides positive learning, healthy competition
and an enjoyable, social experience that promotes the
development of everyone. These activities and experiences
bring the community closer together, as well as gathers
visitors who can make relationships that will last a lifetime.
Gavin Park is a central recreation complex for the use of
residents of the Town of Wilton as well as its surrounding
communities and offers a great compilation of youth
activities catering to busy parents, including an after-school
program and summer day camps, which also provides
the older youth of Wilton with employment opportunities.
Sports programs for baseball, soccer, basketball, pickleball
and coaches’ clinics are also offered to a variety of age
groups. Celebrations such as the Holiday Tree lighting and
Community Day makes the park a fun place to spend the
day with the entire family. As the host of several regional
athletic tournaments and events, Gavin Park brings
thousands of people to the area who can later enjoy the
town’s local shops, restaurants and hotels.
From “nothing into something,” the hard workers of the
town of Wilton have successfully maximized the park’s
space to make it all it can be. With the construction of its
new pavilion, the families of Wilton can look forward to
experiencing even more at this amazing establishment.
Gavin Park is open to the public, dawn to dusk, daily, with office hours;
Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. For more information:
www.townofwilton.com/departments/parks-and-recreation •

ilton was built by its dedicated families. For
most of its history, fields and small homesteads
existed where the seeds of massive growth were
planted by many in the 1970’s, including former
Town Councilman and Supervisor Robert Gavin.

“Everybody loved him. He was an all-around good guy. He
had vision, he knew how to talk to people, he was not quick
to anger, he was really pretty easy-going,” said his daughter,
Sue Gavin Lant.
In his short term in office, Gavin instituted town zoning
regulations, was instrumental in the opening of the Pyramid
Mall and the Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility. Some of
his ideas were more well-received than others.
When residents angry about what Gavin was proposing brought
guns to a town meeting, he reacted calmly and diplomatically.
“He always thought everyone was entitled to their say,” said Lant.
Diagnosed with heart disease, Gavin died in 1981 at the age
of 46. Lant was just 12 years old, but his passion became hers.
“I’ve always had a love for the town like my father did. It’s a great
place to live, with great people, and great stories,” she said.
Wilton’s recreation complex, Gavin Park was dedicated at a
grand opening gala July 23, 1988.
“It’s a great honor for the whole family that Gavin Park was
dedicated to my dad. I think he dreamt of having a beautiful
park here someday,” she said.
Their family continues to serve the town. Sue’s husband,
John Lant is Town Councilman, she is the Saratoga County
Commissioner of Jurors, on the Friends of Wilton Recreation
board, and the Wilton Bicentennial Committee Chair.
“I’m so thankful to live in a wonderful little town that has so
much history. It’s a nice safe community, with good-hearted
people – it’s just wonderful,” she said. •
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TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 57

Photo provided by the Saratoga Room,
Saratoga Springs Public Library

McGregor
Links
Going for It

T

he social elite of the 1920s frolicked on the grounds
of McGregor Links Golf Course. Leisurely Sundays
spent on the velvety greens were followed by
indulgent parties at the club.

Nearly a hundred years later, as busy lifestyles put a
premium on free time; McGregor Links is catering to
families with a wide variety of interests.

Prime Parentage

When State Senator Edgar Brackett commissioned the
McGregor Links course and club to be built, he requested
the best obtainable materials be used for the high-society
clientele he wished to attract.

The site offered a natural expanse of sandy loam - a
rapidly drying soil that allows for a longer season of play
and less delay after heavy rains. Lake Elizabeth provides
a steady source of irrigation for the lush greens. Course
architect Devereux Emmet molded the surface to preserve
its elemental contours while also providing interesting
challenges requiring players use every club in their bag.
Hunting, horseback riding, tennis courts and a pool
offered other diversions to guests during the warm weather
months, while winter sports on the lake kept them delighted
in the off-season.
The spacious colonial columned clubhouse boasted high
exposed beam ceilings with skylights, polished hardwood
floors and decadent dining rooms with broad verandas.

Rolling Along

The once magnificent destination deteriorated in the
decades to follow. In 1960, the name was changed to
Northern Pines Country Club, but was changed back when
it was purchased by George Dennis in 1969 and reopened
under the operation of his son Michael Dennis and wife
Jean Ann, the following year.
With the goal of raising the value of the club and the property
surrounding it simultaneously, Dennis Land Development built
residential houses adjacent to the grounds.
58 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

“He put Wilton on the map. He was a visionary,” said Blake
Crocitto. A member of the club for 10 years, he purchased it
with William Ahl in 2015 from Dennis’ daughter Erinn
and her husband Dean Kolligan, who had been managing
the property since 2009.

Making Strides

McGregor Links’ $2 million in improvements earned them
the 2016 Historic Preservation Award. Most noticeable
perhaps, is the additional comfort provided by the new air
conditioning system. Light streams in to the newly installed
granite bar, which opens to a porch with a retractable
awning. Barn doors separate its staggering 410-person
seating capacity, and it is now handicap accessible.

The main dining room’s mammoth bluestone fireplaces,
natural wood floors, and hand-painted ceilings were
designed by Finishing Touches Home Décor. The restaurant
is now operated internally; is open year-round to the public,
while members are given priority service. The old bar
has been moved to the lounge, which also houses a golf
simulator and space for games appealing to young families.
Playability has been maximized on the course with the
removal of 4,000 trees, an expanded irrigation system,
bunker and tee box renovations.
“We are ahead of schedule and are inches away from
making this the elite course it used to be,” said Crocitto.
Future upgrades to the pool, tennis courts, and the addition
of a summer camp, will make McGregor Links into the family
recreation spot Crocitto hopes to enjoy with other young
families like his own. He and his wife Jennifer, a teacher
at Queensbury Elementary School, have a 9-month-old
daughter, Harper Ann.
“We are looking at the big picture. I honestly think this
will be the centerpiece of Wilton. It’s close, friendly and
convenient to come to,” he said.
On June 23rd, Wilton residents are invited to play 18 holes
for $18.18. Call the McGregor Links Pro Shop for available
tee times at (518) 584-6664. •
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Wilton’s

1940 Wedding

W

hen Perry Stiles built his Wilton farmhouse in 1823,
he influenced the future for himself and for so many
others who would come to enjoy the property in
the following centuries. It is now the home of The
Wishing Well restaurant, a landmark of fine dining in the region.

Chasing the Dream

Perry was the grandson of Reuben Stiles, one of the town’s
original founders whose 1775 settlement came to be known
as Stiles Corners. The early 19th century house that Perry built
was purchased by a Utica textile businessman named Jack
Hedrick and opened to the public as a restaurant in 1936.

Wishing
Well
Golden Anniversary

As the Lee’s celebrate their 50th anniversary of the familyrun business, their goal is to honor their legacy as a
historical presence while providing updated classic dishes
in a comfortably inviting and elegant atmosphere.
“Over the course of fifty years, things change, dining habits
change, which creates an environment where you must
evolve to survive but one constant has always been our family
presence and our commitment to hospitality,” said Bob.

Just minutes from Saratoga Springs, The Wishing Well has
been catering to its horseracing clientele for generations.
One patron even named a mare after the restaurant.
Hedrick added a bar in 1940 (because it was illegal at that
time to serve alcohol from the farmhouse). Through the years, “Wishing Well” went on to earn notoriety when she was bred
with “Halo,” and they produced “Sunday Silence”, winner of
the establishment was operated as a seasonal restaurant
the 1989 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.
by the Winetraub, Lipton, and Ziebert families until Robert
and Brenda Lee bought what was then called the Ye Olde
A year-round dining destination, The Wishing Well
Wishing Well Restaurant & Bar in 1967. Reopened the
considers it a point of pride that they continue to be a
following year, in 1976, they expanded the dining area.
gathering point for the town of Wilton.

Living with their four children, a dog, and a cat in an apartment
“The Lee family would not be able to celebrate 50 years of
above The Wishing Well’s dining area, one of the children’s
The Wishing Well if it weren’t for the great community in
earliest responsibilities was to ensure the cat didn’t go downstairs. which it exists,” said Bob. •
“We were not always successful. The cat would run around
under the tables between the diner’s feet and then we’d all
have to try to catch it,” remembers their son, Bob Lee.
Bob and his wife Mary Alice are now responsible for
running the day-to-day operations of the restaurant, an
evolution that was hastened by Robert’s death in 2002.
Bob’s mother Brenda is still a focal point, there every night
to say hello to returning guests.
“For our family, the restaurant is more than a place of
business, it’s where we celebrate special occasions and
where we go when life is a challenge – it has always been a
home in the true sense of the word,” said Bob.

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TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 59

Dottie Pepper
& Dinah Shore • 1992,
LPGA Photo Archives

Leading Lady

Dottie Pepper
T

he consistently extraordinary commitment of
Dottie Pepper to the game of golf is legendary.

The winner of 17 LPGA titles including two major
championships, she has earned accolades as a
broadcaster and analyst, and served on the PGA of America
Board of Directors.

Growing up, Pepper found supportive relationships - and
living close to McGregor Links Country Club golf course empowered her to excel at golf early on.
“McGregor was essential in my development as a player
because of the proximity to my childhood home, the access
I was afforded to good players and the difficulty of the tests
the golf course poses on a day in, day out basis,” she said.

60 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

" Fore!"

Pepper’s exposure to elite athletes began with her father
Don, who played in the minor leagues from 1962 to 1968,
and first base for Major League Baseball’s Detroit Tigers in
1966. Don went on to open Duffer’s Den, a driving range
and short course that has since closed.
A standout at Saratoga Springs High School’s golf team,
Pepper won the New York State Women’s Amateur title and was
a member of the Junior World Cup team in 1981. She also took
the New York State Girl’s Junior Amateur title in 1981 and '83.
As a junior member at Brookhaven Golf Course, she worked
with course designer and builder George Pulver.

“I simply would not be where I am
today without the Pulver family
influence, from golf to education,
to appreciation of golf course
history and architecture. George
Pulver was truly a genius in so
many areas and his impact still
can be felt in golf in this area,”
she said.

Furman Women’s Golf • 1984,
Furman Sports Information

62 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

Playing on the highly acclaimed
Furman University women’s team,
Pepper won five tournaments and
was a three-time All-American
before getting her degree
in 1987. Since then, she has
received numerous alumni honors
including being inducted into the
Furman Athletic Hall of Fame in
1991, and South Carolina Athletic
Hall of Fame in 2008.

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Back on the
Teeing Ground

After injuries cut Pepper’s playing
career short, she went on to
become a forthright television
broadcaster and returned to
live in Saratoga Springs in 2009.
She has focused local efforts on
the 9/11 Memorial and has a
continued appreciation to the
Saratoga-Wilton Elks Lodge, who
provided an American flag and
pole to the site in 2013, she said.

“I hope Wilton continues to thrive
and grow in its current manner
with caring employees at Town
Hall (they have been terrific to my
nearly 95-year-old grandmother
as it comes to her tax credits, etc.)
and a terrific school in Dorothy
Nolan. I am still amazed at the
way they can manage the budget
and services provided without a
town tax,” she said.
Still working to advance the
future of sports, Pepper recently
developed the Pepper ProEyes
line of sunglasses with Silhouette
in Green Island and Saratoga’s
Family Vision Care Center optician
Susan Halstead.
“Our sunglasses will help both RX
and non-RX wearers have access
to a lens that is wearable from
dawn to dusk in an extremely
lightweight, adjustable and
durable frame. The wide vision
corridor is great for everyone in
nearly every sport but especially
progressive lens wearers who
struggle with head position and
clear vision with the traditional
progressive lens design…They
will be available primarily
through our webstore as well as
PGA golf professionals. And, yes,
we hope McGregor Links carries
them!” said Pepper. •

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TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 63

Dale Long & Dale Jr.
at Forbes Field
in the 1950’s

Dale Long
Drivin' It Home

Wilton has been called home by
many - including a baseball player
famous for his home runs.

From the Dugout

It’s a family history story that begins more than a hundred
years ago with Elmer Long, barnstorming teammate of
Babe Ruth. The semi-pro outfielder was playing exhibition
games during a special time in the sport.
“Baseball in my grandfather’s era was a big deal, every community,
every business had a baseball team,” said Dale Long Jr.
64 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

Elmer’s son, Richard Dale Long grew up in Missouri playing
ball – football and baseball.
“He was a tremendous all-around athlete,” said Dale Jr.
about his father, who went by the name Dale.
At 6’5” tall, the 230 lbs. left-handed high school freshman
had the confidence to win a first-baseman position
belonging to a senior on the team.
“Because of his size, he couldn’t have played any other
infield position really. There was a lot of action and he just
liked it,” said Dale Jr.
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Smash Hit

Playing Pro

Dale played 13 seasons in the Major Leagues, with a career
total of 132 home runs; he drove in 467 runs and batted .267.

The power hitter became trade bait in a game where the
players were treated like pieces on a checkerboard.

He became the first modern-day left-handed catcher in
1951 while playing for the Pittsburg Pirates. Using a firstbaseman’s mitt to catch until a special lefty version could be
constructed; it was an experiment that secured him a place
in baseball history.

In the 1960 spring training season, Dale Jr. remembers the
family had packed up the station wagon and was ready
to move to Chicago from Arizona when Dale got the call
that he had been traded to the San Francisco Giants. At a
moment’s notice, they had to move to California instead.
Among the teams Dale also played for were the Chicago
Cubs and the New York Yankees.

At the peak of his career, in 1956 Dale hit home runs in
a record eight consecutive games. It was a tremendous
streak that has only been accomplished twice since: by Don
Mattingly and Ken Griffey Jr.
“Any player that can perform consistently at such a high level
says the same thing my dad did – he was just so locked
in that the ball seemed to be bigger and slower. He was
so focused. It was a combination of physical, mental and
emotional focus, and of course, luck,” said Dale Jr.

Because his father was famous, Dale Jr. said he made
friends easily at each new school he went to – a total of
eight by the time he was in eighth grade.
“I wouldn’t have traded it for anything,” he said.

962
ees • 1
k Yank
r
o
Y
New

Illustration of
Dale Long’s
early career by
Frank Fanning

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TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 65

New York Yankees Team • 1960

Third Inning

When his baseball career began winding down, Dale
worked as a player representative, went to umpire school
and opened Dale Long’s Lounge, a night club in Adams,
Massachusetts for several years. In 1967, the family moved
to Clifton Park where Dale was instrumental to founding
Shenendehowa High School’s football team before
moving to Wilton in the early ‘70s.

During his final years, Dale was back in baseball, doing
quality control work for the National Association of
Professional Baseball Leagues, inspecting the park
conditions of every minor league team east of the
Mississippi River. Dale died of cancer in 1991, at the age of
64. In addition to Dale Jr., survivors included Dorothy, his
wife of 45 years (who has since passed) and son Johnny.

New York Hall of Fame •

66 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

2013

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Sign up for

Dale & Dorothy Long on their wedding day

FREE
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DELIVERY
TODAY!

Rounding the Bases

Dale Jr. was a high school all-star who played
professionally for the Florida State Rookie League.
Sleeping on cots in the stifling southern heat, he found
the simple boxed lunch and low pay less than glamorous.
Still, he played wherever he had an opportunity to play
until he ruptured his Achilles tendon, he said.

“I’m not like my dad, but I enjoyed it,” said Dale Jr.
Working for General Dynamics and Fort Miller Co. for a
combined total of 28 years, Dale Jr. is now retired and
lives with his wife Dr. Angela Condy in Wilton. Their two
children both graduated from Saratoga Central Catholic
School (SCC). Dale C. played college baseball at Division 1
Quinnipiac University and coached at SCC, as well.
Dale Jr. has been the SCC Assistant Varsity Baseball Coach
for 12 years and is in his sixth year as SCC Lead Golf
Coach. While coaching the Saratoga Stampede baseball
team, they’ve earned multiple State Championship wins.
“The indoor facilities available today for an athlete to train
in, we never had anything like that. There’s a lot more
opportunity for kids to be successful,” said Dale Jr.
With more distractions for kids and less community
support behind the sport, the biggest thing hurting the
game of baseball is its lack of responsible role models, he
said. Dale would marshal parades, speak for free at little
league banquets and drive hours through a snowstorm to
make an unpaid appearance.
“That was his big love,” he said.
Both Dale and Dale Jr. have been inducted into the
New York State Baseball Hall of Fame. •

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TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 67

Town of

Wilton

Parkfest

The Town of Wilton aspires to be a safe, welcoming community for families and
residents of all ages. The community shares a sense of responsibility for the
Town’s natural, agricultural, open space, and scenic resources. The Town enjoys
a high quality of life and a healthy tax base resulting from a conscious balance of
commercial development, residential growth and natural areas. Civic involvement
and community engagement are fostered by a mutual respect for all stakeholders.
Assessor
Kathy Austin
(518) 587-1939 ext. 202
Comptroller
Jeffery R. Reale
(518) 587-1939 ext. 217
Dog Control
Ron Stunzi
(518) 587-2291
Engineer & Director
of Planning
Ryan Riper
(518) 587-1939 ext. 215
Heritage Society
Catherine Orton
(518) 583-2335

uring the heroic early days of the Wilton Fire
Department, they did it simply because they were able
to. It was the volunteer era, where you learned on the
job and remained dedicated to the cause.

“It was needed, so they did it,” said John Rucinski Jr., who
is today the youngster of the group, with only 48 years of
experience fighting fires. His dad, John Rucinski Sr., has 57.

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On the Job

There wasn’t a lot of training in the 1950s and ‘60s when
these guys started out.
“No one knew what to do,” said William E. Morgan, a 63-year
veteran firefighter with the Wilton Fire Department. They
were willing to learn on the job however, and the loyal crew

TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 69

Wilton Station #1 complex with all their apparatus

of 95 members that he started with was nearly double the
size of the team they have today.

Photo by PhotoAndGraphic.com

“You name it, and we did it,” explained John Sr. His dad
was a fireman in Connecticut, so he spent his childhood
running around the firehouse there until he was able to join
as an auxiliary member at age 16. He served 10 years in
Connecticut and the remaining 52 years in Wilton.
Multi-generational service is a common thread that runs
through this group of steadfast men. The department has
three families with four generations of firefighters.
“There are 20 members of my family that have been in the
fire department and I just followed suit,” said Stephen Kloss
Sr., a Wilton firefighter for 57 years.
“It’s in our blood,” added Richard Helenek who has been on
the job in Wilton for 52 years, one year less than his brother
Robert Helenek’s 53 years of service.

Five Phone Fires

Once ignited, fires accelerated quickly through many of
Wilton’s structures.
The Rusk family house, built in 1859, was fully involved when
firefighters arrived on January 3, 1970. The house had been
operating as a foster home, and eight people perished in the
fire, but three were able to get out, including a young boy who
was found in the -23 degree temperatures barefoot in the snow.
The tragic incident led to the social service practice of separating
siblings when they are placed in the foster care system.
Before the 911 system to dispatch calls was installed in Wilton, it
was the firemen, their wives, and other family members that often
manned the phones. When there was a really big fire, five phones
would be ringing at once, remembers Morgan. The town’s bell
would be rung and the fire would be located on a large wall map.
There was an early morning fire in 1967 at the Wilton Elementary
School. Several important buildings were lost in 1973 including
Saratoga’s Hotel Iceland, built in 1893, and Wilton’s Town Hall in
the Union Church (the town bell was salvaged).

for
1 call
st

7 truck

new 194

The following year, it took 12 hours and a mile of hose to
extinguish a fire at Standard Furniture. Wilton’s Hillcrest
Hotel was the site of a whopping 17 fires in 15 days before
it was declared a total loss. The Jamesway in Saratoga
Springs, and Pennell’s Hardware on Maple Avenue burned
down. Fires in many other structures were exacerbated by
the flammable home materials, balloon-frame and truss
construction techniques used in the day.

Charged Line & Other Changes

Equipment in
new firehouse

Advancements in protective equipment and apparatus meant
a whole new way to fight fires. The Wilton Fire Department
was proud to get a new truck in 1975. They combined their
day-job skills in 1985 to build an addition to the 1946 Ernst &
Young two bay firehouse they were based in.
“We had to keep getting bigger trucks because the
buildings kept getting bigger and bigger,” said Richard.

70 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

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From the
Beginning,
old firefighter
helmets
and gear

Parade, Competition & Mardi
Gras trophies from 1973 to present

The installation of a fire hydrant system through the leadership
of one local businessman made a world of difference.
“Mike Dennis, he was Wilton water,” he said.
Then the water lines doubled in width from 2 ½" to
5" to accommodate greater flow, and modern fireresistant fabrics replaced the old rubber coats and boots.
Standardized building procedures, including inspectors
and structural diagrams, now make them safer from the start,
and fire investigators can identify causes afterward.

training and the will to go to a call at any hour – for free – is
proving to be a challenge, however.
“It’ll be paid someday, it’ll have to be, but it’s going to cost
the taxpayers a bundle of money,” predicts John Sr. •

“It’s mostly ignorance that causes fires now,” said Morgan.
The state-of-the-art new station on Ballard Road was built
in 2002 at a cost of $2.5 million. It has 19' ceilings, five bays,
a gym and a comfortable lounge. Their fleet of fourteen
trucks ranges from a vintage model to the $1.2 million
high-rise ladder truck they bought this year.
In addition to fires, they frequently answer calls for medical
assistance and car accidents.
“There are 4,000 cars a day coming through Northway Exit
16, they don’t know any other way to go,” said Kloss.

Career Men Keep It Strong

The Wilton Fire Department continues to support the
community through benefits, banquets and fundraisers,
parade appearances, and manning special events. These
have including the 1968 Wilton Centennial Parade, the
World’s Largest Pizza event in 1978 and this year’s Wilton
Bicentennial Civil War Reenactment Weekend, among others.
This group of extraordinary men is still serving at the station,
volunteering to drive the trucks, manning the radio, and
maintaining the equipment, among other jobs.
Finding enough new members to sustain the 140 hours of
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ince 1947, the Maple Avenue Fire Company has been population expanded and that grassland was replaced by
an integral part of the Wilton community. Originally
homes and businesses, frequent structural fires put the
housed in converted barns and school buildings,
scantily-equipped crew in regular danger.
their current fire station was built in the 1998.
“You had to do what you had to do,” said Mike Smith. Three
Those early fires were mostly brush and grass fires. It
generations of his family were firemen. His father was
was recorded in a diary from 1948 that one located near
among the men who helped fight the infamous United
Loughberry Lake destroyed two chicken coops. As the
States Hotel fire in Saratoga Springs.

“We knew every family in the town. During Saratoga Springs’
wrath of fires, we were their first call for mutual aid because
we knew everyone and that made it easier,” said former town
councilman and county planning director Larry Gordon.
It was common for the area’s early department store light
fixtures to overheat and ignite. Anderson-Little had a
$
500,000 inventory of men’s suit when their fire broke out,
but the fire company was able to contain it. Something they
were also able to do with a Chinese food restaurant that
endured several fires within the Pyramid Mall.
The fire at Quality Gas station required multiple departments
to keep a steady stream of water flowing down for eight
hours to keep dangerous liquids from igniting, despite the
pouring rain that day.
“Every fire is different and every fire is dangerous,” said Smith.
The weak and flammable construction of mobile homes
resulted in many dangerous situations. The men’s rubber
gloves melted from the heat, the structures’ ceilings
would collapse on top of them, and they’d fall through the
flooring, the team recalls.

E quipped to Protect

Advances in equipment improved greatly through the
years. One of the first and most invaluable was the versatile
multipurpose Halligan hand tool, which features a forked
claw, a blade and tapered pick. Smith remembers using
one to break into many structures as they went up in flames,
including the Marine Midland bank.
Approximately 30 years ago, the Knox Box, a 6-inch square
safe, started being installed in the front of businesses. It
contains a spare set of keys and building schematics to
assist firefighters trying to enter the building. Maple Avenue
firefighters attended town planning meetings to ensure
these devices would be incorporated into the building
plans because of their simple ability to save thousands of
dollars in damage and valuable time in the event of a fire.
Prior to the 1970s, firefighters used only filtered air masks to
protect themselves from smoke inhalation. The invention of
the Scott Airpak self-contained air canisters provided those
entering into the smoke-filled rooms 30 minutes of air.

“I’ve seen a lot of people die. I honestly believe it’s a noble calling.
It’s not for everyone. I’ve seen it all and have gotten to be wellcalloused,” said firefighter and town councilman John Lant.
“You can put a lot of fire out in half an hour,” said Smith.
74 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

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Neighbors You Can Turn To

In addition to fighting fires, the Maple Avenue department
has many other responsibilities. Mike’s wife, Bev Smith was
a long-time member of the women’s auxiliary, which helped
to prepare roast beef and turkey dinners for fundraisers and
social gatherings.
Everyone banded together to search for people who
went missing, she said. The group remembers nervously
searching for a young boy who wandered off from a family
picnic in the backyard, and then rejoicing when they found
him sitting on a stump waiting patiently. Several years ago,
they spent nearly three days searching through swamps
and vacant lands for a Malta woman.

“All of a sudden she steps out from behind a tree and says,
‘I want a sandwich’,” said Bev.
Modern equipment, including thermal imaging cameras
allow firefighters to find people and track their resonant
heat signatures. Emergency preplans can be loaded into
electronic tablets for easy access, and department employee
assistance program counselors are available to help work
through the difficult emotions inherent in such an intense job.

Their “Are You Ok?” storm program ensures that residents
are taken care of during power outages. Together, they are
a team that Wilton residents trust.
“We’ve become a catchall for everything. They know they can
rely on the fire service,” said Deputy Chief Duane Bogardus.
Fun events, including the department basketball game
against teachers at Dorothy Nolan Elementary School, hose
competitions and events at Gavin ParkFest demonstrate
their unwavering commitment to the community.
As state mandates have increased training requirements to
more than three times as long as they once were, becoming
a firefighter is now a time-consuming prospect that requires
continuing involvement by younger members at a time when
their busy lives have seen their participation numbers dwindling.
“We just had seven people complete their training, so that’s
encouraging,” said Bogardus. •

Attending to traffic accidents is also another important
duty of the department. The turn by the Triangle Diner was
difficult for large trucks to navigate, so they’d topple and
drop their load all over the street, remembers Gordon. The
railroad also carried large, dangerous cargo through town.

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TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 75

Wilton E MS
A Far-Reaching First Response Team

T

oday, we rely on the fast response of trusted emergency
medical technicians and depend on their cool-headed
comfort when we are at our most vulnerable, but Wilton
didn’t get their own ambulance service until 1981.

Citizen Enterprise

The town was previously serviced by the Corinth and Saratoga
Springs Emergency Corps, but a core group of community
members wanted quicker response times in the event of an
emergency. It was their determined efforts that created the Wilton
Emergency Squad, Inc., led by squad president Arnold Bruno.
“He was the bulldog that put an ambulance in Wilton,” said
Chief Operating Officer Nash Alexander. Bruno was an
engineer who had a passion for bettering his community,
as were others, including Bonnie and Sharon Cooper,
Muriel, Dean, and Dean Duell Jr. Through many fundraising
efforts including auctions, bake sales and coin drops, the
20 member squad was able to raise enough money and
equipment to begin responding to calls by 1982.

Operation Space

The purchase of a 3-acre lot on Edie Road from the town
for $1 ended up being too swampy to build a garage on, so
the squad’s single ambulance and their 1973 Pontiac, (a gift
from the Wilton Fire Dept.) sat out in the open until local real
estate developer Mike Dennis donated a plot on Jones Road
for a garage. In 1984, after more than a year of construction,
the Wilton Emergency Squad garage was move-in ready.
76 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

In 2004, the original three-bay building was converted
into an office and a 6,000 sq. ft. addition was added on.
Today, they have five ambulances and three quick response
vehicles for their crew of forty employees and 25 volunteers.
Alexander, who has been with the squad since 1999, became
their first full-time paid employee in 2001. Back then, they
answered an average of 900 calls each year. Now, they
respond to nearly 3,000 calls over a coverage area of more
than 100 square miles (a recent expansion resulting from a
merger with the Schuylerville service area into their district).

Going Above and Beyond

“Day in and day out, our goal is to make sure we treat
everybody the right way. We transport them to the hospital,
offer counseling services, but also will bring their groceries
in if they ask us to after we’ve assisted them to recover from
a fall, for instance. We always ask, ‘Is there anything else we
can do for you before we leave?’ Our goal is to make the
second half of their day better than the first,” said Alexander.
Providing a variety of other services including home safety
audits, event detail, and medical education classes, Alexander
stresses the importance of everyone learning basic CPR skills
because it’s something he’s seen save countless lives.
From health emergencies to infamous accidents, including
those by construction workers building the Wilton Mall, and the
Target Distribution center, to a 60-car pile-up on Exit 15 in 1990,
they’ve proven to be an integral part of the Wilton community.
“We’re an organization you can depend on.” •
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TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 77

78 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

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SAVE
THESE
DATES

200 years of History
...One whole year to celebrate!

Historic Celebration Weekend to kick off the year’s events!
FRIDAY, APRIL 20-SUNDAY, APRIL 22

April is the anniversary month of Wilton's 200th year
celebration and we are bringing history back to life with the
Reenactment of Wilton’s First Town Meeting at the Wilton
Mall on Friday, April 20th from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
Gathered around the fountain area will be representatives
from Wilton Rotary, Wilton Wildlife Preserve, the Town
of Wilton, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, the Children's
Museum at Saratoga, the Wilton Food Pantry, the Wilton
Senior Center, AIM Services, Inc., Grant Cottage, Wilton
Heritage Society and others displaying information about
their civic group/organization.
The Captain Giles Kellogg's Company of Artillery will
take us back in time with their reenactment of the first
town meeting. Light refreshments will follow, after which
we will enter the Bow Tie Cinema for the first viewing of
the Wilton Bicentennial documentary film.
Ballard Elementary School students will be studying
Wilton Bicentennial History.
Fourth graders will be studying the history of Wilton
within their Social Studies classes. They will be focusing
on topics of transportation, education, communication,
leisure activities and industry during the 1800s and
creating displays of their research.
Fifth graders will be creating travel brochures that
highlight focal points in the town of Wilton.
Both grades will display their work for prior to Wilton's
Bicentennial Historic Celebration Weekend at the Wilton
Mall as well as at Camp Saratoga on April 21st and 22nd.
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"The Fresh Market in the Fresh Market Plaza, Saratoga, is
donating butter cookies decorated with blue sugar to
represent the Karner Blue Butterfly that is indigenous to
the Town of Wilton," said the Bakery Manager, Tamara
Calhoun. "We are thrilled to be a part of the Bicentennial
Celebration for the Town of Wilton," said store Assistant
manager, Chris Johnson.

FRIDAY, APRIL 20
THE HISTORIC WEEKEND CELEBRATION WILL ALSO
BE THE LAUNCH OF THE WILTON 200 KIDS’ QUEST
Kids are invited to join the fun of learning about Wilton
history and earning a Wilton bicentennial patch.
The Wilton 200 Kids’ Quest adventure, which was created
by Wilton Boy Scout Troop 24, will launch on Wilton’s
bicentennial anniversary weekend, April 20-­22, 2018!
Kids can complete the adventure trail anytime between
that weekend and the end of summer.
Register online or in person starting the evening of Friday,
April 20th at the Bicentennial Anniversary program at Wilton
Mall. There is no fee, but youth need to be registered to meet
the requirements and earn the patch. Participants will receive
an information packet with all the details when they register.
Along the way, kids will showcase the fun through visuals
and journaling in a digital or paper scrapbook. Present the
scrapbook to earn the patch.

TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 79

The Bicentennial Historic Celebration Weekend continues with…

Historic Site Tours
of Wilton
SATURDAY, APRIL 21-SUNDAY, APRIL 22

Revisit Wilton history on Saturday, April 21st and
Sunday, April 22nd from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. stopping at the
Wilton Heritage Museum for your map to a self-guided
tour that will include old churches, cemeteries, Grant
Cottage on top of Mt. McGregor and the old Wilton
Grange, as well as other local landmarks.

Sunday’s celebration at Camp Saratoga will include
the Ribbon-Cutting for the Wilton Bicentennial Trail and
Earth Day activities.

Begin your tour by stopping at The Wilton Heritage
Society Museum at 5 Parkhurst Road to pick up a brochure
describing the sites and showing their locations.
The tour will culminate each day with a gathering at
historic Camp Saratoga, now part of Wilton Wildlife
Preserve & Park, where you'll have the opportunity to
sample Stewart's Shops’ limited-time Wilton Bicentennial
ice cream flavor - Karner Blueberry.
Stewart's Shops is creating an ice cream flavor in
celebration of the Wilton Bicentennial which will be
served during the Historic Weekend Celebration at
Camp Saratoga on April 21st and 22nd as well as at
Bicentennial Parkfest on July 7th. The flavor is Karner
Blueberry and it will be sold in all three Stewart's Shops
in Wilton: Jones Rd & Rte 50, Ballard Rd & Traver,
Davidson Dr & Northern Pines. The ice cream flavor will
be available at the counter for hand packed or cones.
History buffs and the general public are invited to visit
these sites from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 21
and Sunday, April 22.
Volunteers will be available at the cemeteries to point out
tombstones of many distinguished early residents who
helped to shape Wilton into what it is today.
At Camp Saratoga, visitors will learn more about the
history of the old Boy Scout camp, the ecosystem of the
Saratoga Sandplains, and the habitat and life cycle of the
endangered Karner Blue butterfly. The Fire Tower will
also be accessible.
80 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

Wilton Heritage Museum, the site of the former
Wiltonville Methodist Church, at the foot of Mt. McGregor, on
Parkhurst Road near the corner of Corinth Mountain Road.

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The oldest church building in Wilton is the former
Methodist Episcopal Church of South Wilton erected in 1854.

McGregor Links Country Club is offering a one-day golfing
event for only $18.18

All Wilton residents are welcome to enjoy a round of golf,
cart included! We encourage you to call the pro shop early to
register a tee time, (518) 584-6270.
“We are proud and excited to show our residents the newly
renovated course and clubhouse and welcome all to come
view our property. Please join us.”
-Blake Crocitto, General Manager of
McGregor Links Country Club.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11 – SUNDAY, AUGUST 12
A CIVIL WAR WEEKEND
Saturday August 11th, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday, August
12th 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at 269 Ballard Road in Wilton will be
featuring more than 100 reenactors dressed in uniform,
with Calvary horses, pitching tents and performing battle
scenarios with multiple canon blasts. Visually engaging
displays of military artifacts, author readings, musical groups,
food vendors and more will provide an educational and
exciting experience for all. More than 75 Wilton residents
who served in the Civil War will also be recognized.

SATURDAY, JULY 7
BICENTENNIAL PARKFEST AT GAVIN PARK
The event will include all the wonderful attractions the
town’s annual Parkfest has to offer, as well as some special
features including…
Old Time Photos, a musical stage showcasing music
“through the ages” performed by The Fyfe & Drums
of Olde Saratoga, Skip Parsons Dixieland Band, Bluz
House Rockers performing soul, R&B, jazz and rock
followed by Latitude 43 playing Vintage Country
and Americana tunes. In addition, the Captain Giles
Kellogg’s Company of Artillery will be presenting an
encampment scene complete with demonstrations of
civilian quill writing, sewing, cooking, tape loom, and
artillery demonstrations.
Photos by PhotoAndGraphic.com

82 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018

www.saratogaTODAYnewspaper.com

The
Wilton
Historic
Home
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16

On Sunday, September 16th, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. - Pick up
your Guide to the Historic Home Tour at the Wilton Heritage
Society and Museum, formerly the Wiltonville Methodist
Church located at the corner of Parkhurst and Mt. McGregor
Roads beginning at 10 a.m. on Sunday, September 16th.
Your self-guided tour will take you up Mt. McGregor to
Grant Cottage where former President Ulysses S. Grant
wrote his memoirs and spent the last days of his life. Other

Tour

attractions include The Old Stiles Tavern and the Kings
Station School #5, one of the last one-room school houses
used in Wilton, as well as the home featured in the movie
Ghost Story.
Many historical homes will be open for a walk through,
while others will be drive-by only. Guides will show visitors
around each open residence and share the significance it
holds in Wilton’s history.

The cabin that became
known as Grant Cottage was
built by Duncan McGregor
in 1878 and was known as
Mountain House. Joseph
Drexel, one of the developers
of the Balmoral Hotel, knew
that former President Ulysses
S. Grant was suffering from
terminal throat cancer and
offered him the cottage for
the summer of 1885. Grant
came to the cottage in June
1885 and during his stay
completed his memoir, which
would sustain his family after
his death. Grant died at the
cottage on July 27, 1885.

www.saratogaTODAYnewspaper.com

TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018 | 83

Come take the tour
to see the rest!!
King Station School District No. 5, the last
one-room school in Wilton, closed in 1959.

Duncan McGregor built this home about 1830. He
was in the lumber business and decided to clear the
mountain in back of his house. After constructing a
road to the summit, he built a small hotel that was
very popular and became a weekend destination.
Mount McGregor was named after him. The Myers
family (grandparents of F. Donald Myers) bought this
house from Duncan McGregor in 1835. This picture
shows the Myers family about 50 years later.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23
THE TASTE OF WILTON,
FROM FARM TO CHEF
A unique event which will
showcase local farms, restaurants
and artisan beverage makers. It
takes place on September 23, 2018, 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. under
the tent at Gavin Park in Wilton, NY. Rain or Shine! Restaurants
will provide tastings of an appetizer, main course or dessert
utilizing the fresh produce from a farm that has been paired
specifically with them. Food tickets are $1 each. Restaurant
samples are priced in food coupons and can range from $1 to $6.
The tastings will be judged by the public and a panel of judges
for "Best Taste" utilizing the farm ingredients. Proceeds go to the
Wilton Food Pantry. Live music provided by Larry Hooker.
Here is a list of some of the participating restaurants, farms
and distilleries, as of press date:
The Brook Tavern, Fish at 30 Lake, Chez Pierre
Restaurant, Wishing Well Restaurant, Burnt Hills Cafe,
The Triangle Diner, Izzy Bella's Bakery and Market,

The Bicentennial Year Celebration culminates with a Holiday
Community Dinner at the Saratoga-Wilton Elks Lodge #161
on 1 Elks Lane in Saratoga Springs. The evening will include a
sumptuous buffet dinner, carving station, dessert, entertainment,
dancing and a cash bar for $20.18. Entertainment will be
provided by Richie Phillips and food by Waterford Banquets.
Tickets can be purchased beginning October 1st by going
to www.wiltonbicentennial.com or with a check or cash at
Wilton Town Hall. The final event of the Bicentennial year
promises to be an enjoyable evening of fun with friends
and neighbors as we bring a historic and memorable
Bicentennial year of celebrations to a close, while looking
forward, as a community, to the beginning of 2019!

So much fun at the gala in January...
Looking forward to seeing you all in December!
Art & Sandy Johnson

Susan Gavin Lant
& John Lant
Jeff Brisbin

Pierre, Kelsey
& Patrick Baldwin

Fran Dingeman
& Nancy Riely

Photos by PhotoAndGraphic.com

For more information go to WiltonBicentennial.com
www.saratogaTODAYnewspaper.com

Skate at Gavin Park – snap a photo
Visit the Spash Park – snap a photo
Visit Parkfest
Visit Grant’s Cottage – snap a photo of
yourself on the Porch
Visit the Wilton Heritage Museum
– snap of photo of your favorite exhibit.
Visit Wilton Wildlife – snap a photo of a
flower or the Karner Blue Butterfly
Climb the Cornell Fire tower – snap a
photo from the top
Attend a town meeting – Zoning,
Planning or monthly town board meeting
Visit town hall – pay your taxes, license your
dog, get a hunting or fishing license, pick
up mosquito dunks, get a building permit
or handicap placard. We’ll take your photo
Visit the Senior Center – snap a photo
See the First Town Meeting Reenactment
at Wilton Mall, April 20th from 6-7:30 p.m.
Preview the Wilton Documentary
at Bow Tie Cinemas on April 20th
Take the Historic Site Tour on April 21st
or 22nd from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Take the Historic Homes tour on
September 16th from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Snap a photo of 3 different blue
historical markers. ex. Battle of Wilton,
Grant Cottage, Gurn Springs, Cemetery
Hike at Lake Bonita – snap a photo
Visit Moreau Lake, swim, walk,
paddleboard or hike
Stop at a Wilton Stewart’s shop and
have a Karner Blueberry ice cream cone
or dish – snap a photo.
Visit the Civil War encampment on the
DA Collins property August 11th and 12th
Hike one of our trails, Orra Phleps
Nature Preserve, Fox Farm, Opdahl Farm
or the Nielman Parcel. Maps can be
found on our website, townofwilton.com

Great memorabilia for sale!

The Town of Wilton invites all community organizations and businesses to participate in Wilton’s
Bicentennial in two ways: (1) by creating your own event which we will promote on the Bicentennial
website and (2) by volunteering to help at the upcoming Signature events.
Contact Nancy Riely with interest at (518) 587-1939 x 239 or nriely@townofwilton.com.
86 | TOWN OF WILTON 200 th ANNIVERSARY 2018